Clinical Characteristics and Outcomes of Children and Adolescents With Cancer Infected With SARS-CoV-2 at a Tertiary Care Medical Center in Jordan.

BACKGROUND: Our knowledge about severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection is still evolving; its effects on children with cancer need to be studied more. The aim of this study is to present our experience with SARS-CoV-2 infection in this population and to highlight specific complications and outcomes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a retrospective and prospective observational study, which involved 21 cancer patients below the age of 18 years in north Jordan. Data regarding their age, sex, cancer type and progression, phase of treatment, and others were collected and reviewed. Patients were classified into confirmed, probable, and suspect according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) 2021 classification. RESULTS: A total of 21 patients with malignancy were included. Ten patients were males (48%). Mean age of 8.8 years (3 mo to 18 y). Two patients (9.5%) had died; one (4.7%) death was coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-related and the other one (4.7%) was due to cancer progression. Two patients (9.5%) had multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children. Both disease progression and new malignancies were documented in 11 (52%) of our patients. CONCLUSIONS: Diagnosis of COVID-19 should not distract physicians from investigating new malignancy or relapse as they may come together or may be related to COVID-19 infection. More studies are needed to identify the contribution of SARS-CoV-2 in the pathogenesis of cancer.

Seroprevalence and genotyping of hepatitis C virus in multiple transfused Jordanian patients with ß-thalassemia major.

OBJECTIVE: The main objectives of this study are to investigate the prevalence of HCV among patients with ß-thalassemia major and to determine the most prevalent genotype for this virus among them. METHODS: One hundred twenty-two ß-thalassemia major patients who were previously diagnosed at the molecular level were included. All plasma samples were tested for the presence of antibodies by ELISA. Real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used in the quantitation the HCV RNA viral loads, and consequently, patients with high virus titer were genotyped by the linear array. RESULTS: Forty of the patients were anti-HCV positive. The prevalence of anti-HCV was significantly higher in patients who received blood transfusion before 1993 (83.7%) than in those who received it after 1993 (16.3%) (p=0.000). ß-thalassemia major patients with HCV infection had significantly higher rates of elevated aspartate aminotransferase (54.4% vs 40.5%, p=0.045) and alanine aminotransferase (72.47% vs 37.47%, p=0.00) and of splenectomy (54.8% vs 45.2%, p=0.004) than ß-thalassemia major patients without HCV. CONCLUSION: HCV genotype 4 is the commonest genotype in multi-transfused patients with ß-thalassemia major in Jordan.