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Multicenter Study
. 2023 Apr 6;18(4):e0282423.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0282423. eCollection 2023.

The impact of COVID-19 in children with Sickle Cell Disease: Results of a multicentric registry

Claudia de Melo Oliveira  1 , Victor Jablonski Soares  2 , Josefina Aparecida Pellegrini Braga  3 , Thaís Alcantara Bonilha  4 , Isis Magalhães  5 , Sandra Regina Loggetto  6 , Ciliana Rechenmacher  1   7 , Liane Esteves Daudt  1   7   8 , Mariana Bohns Michalowski  1   7   9
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

The impact of COVID-19 in children with Sickle Cell Disease: Results of a multicentric registry

Claudia de Melo Oliveira et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Objective: To analyze the outcomes of children with sickle cell disease (SCD) and COVID-19.

Method: A multicenter prospective study was conducted in five hematological centers from Central and Southeast Brazil, starting in April 2020. The variables recorded include clinical symptoms, diagnostic methods, therapeutic measures, and treatment sites. The clinical repercussions of the infection on the initial treatment and the overall prognosis were also evaluated.

Results: Twenty-five unvaccinated children, aged 4 to 17 years, with SCD and a positive SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR result participated in this study. Patients were classified as SCD types SS (n = 20, 80%) and SC (n = 5, 20%). Clinical characteristics and evolution were similar in both groups (p>0.05), except for the fetal hemoglobin value which was higher among the SC patients (p = 0.025). The most frequent symptoms were hyperthermia (72%) and cough (40%). Three children were admitted to the intensive care unit, all of whom were overweight/obese (p = 0.078). No deaths were observed.

Conclusions: Although SCD leads to specific complications, the results found in this sample suggest that COVID-19 does not seem to carry an increased mortality risk in pediatric patients with this disease.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

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