COVID-19 & allogeneic transplant: Activity and preventive measures for best outcomes in China

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly transmissible viral illness caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). This virus triggered a pandemic crisis for health care systems worldwide. Initial experience from China indicated that patients with cancer had a higher risk of COVID-19 infection and poorer outcomes after developing COVID-19 than individuals without cancer.¹ Patients with hematologic malignancy or receiving transplantation are immunosuppressed and may be particularly vulnerable to viral infections, and the hematology community faces unprecedented challenges.

The rapidly expanding COVID-19 pandemic has affected all aspects of medical activity, including hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Based on our current experience, preventive work of novel coronavirus is extremely important to mitigate its impact. Outside the epicentre (Wuhan), transplantation activity in China was not halted. We recommend preservation of transplantation activity under the premise of ensuring safety. This comment describes the possible impact of the current COVID-19 pandemic on transplantation activity and introduces interim precautions in our centre during the outbreak period.

During the outbreak, we maintained 80% of the transplant status. None of the patients or staff in our centre have been diagnosed with COVID-19, which demonstrates the importance and effectiveness of our preventive measures. We recommend preservation of transplant activity to the extent that the outbreak of COVID-19 allows. Otherwise, numerous patients will miss the optimal opportunity of transplantation and have poor prognosis. In addition to preserving transplantation activity, ensuring the safety of transplantation is a top priority. As mentioned above, transplantation is a procedure involving many aspects, and maximum emphasis should be placed on radical preventive and screening measures for each section of transplantation.

The comment was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Peking University People's Hospital.

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

X.-J. H. designed the review; Z.-L. X. and X.-J. H. wrote the manuscript; and they gave final approval for the manuscript.