Introduction:
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a viral respiratory illness caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the first case was detected in December 2019. (1) The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly escalated into a global crisis. (2) The first case registered in Egypt was in February 2020 and since that date, the numbers have been increasing and by mid-June 2020, 47,856 cases of SARS-CoV-2 and 1766 deaths have been reported by the Ministry of Health (3).
Children are usually develops mild disease (4), a Chinese analysis of 2135 confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 among children revealed that 55.4% developed mild symptoms or were asymptomatic and only 5.4% had severe illness compared with 18.5% of adult cases. (5)
Viral infections in general are associated with increased morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised children. (6) Data on the clinical features and outcomes of immunocompromised children with cancer who are infected with SARS-CoV-2 are scarce. Knowledge from previous influenza A H1N1 pandemics suggests that those vulnerable immunosuppressed children are likely to be infected and to develop manifestation as an increased number of cases are described with time. (7,8)
Although isolation as an inpatient is common practice for children who are receiving intensive chemotherapy or stem cell transplant, most children with cancer are treated in the outpatient setting, and hospital visits or intermittent hospital admission are unavoidable for appropriate delivery of therapy. Risk of exposure to SARS-CoV-2, either in the hospital or the community setting, has resulted in widespread anxiety among families of children with cancer. (9)
The primary objective of this study was to measure the frequency of SARS-COV-2 infection among hospitalized children with cancer, while the secondary objective was to identify the associated clinical manifestations and outcomes in those with confirmed SARS-COV2 infection.