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Morbidity of pandemic H1N1 influenza in children with cancer

2010; Wiley; Volume: 55; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1002/pbc.22619

1545-5017

Désirée Caselli, Francesca Carraro, Elio Castagnola, Ottavio Ziino, Stefano Frenos, Giuseppe Maria Milano, Susanna Livadiotti, Simone Cesaro, Nicoletta Marra, Giulio Andrea Zanazzo, Cristina Meazza, Monica Cellini, Maurizio Aricò,

Thermal Regulation in Medicine

Abstract Background To define the mortality and the current impact of the H1N1 pandemic in pediatric hematology‐oncology centers, we performed a specific survey. Procedure Pharyngeal swabs from patients with fevers of unknown origin, flu‐like symptoms or bronchopneumonia were screened for H1N1 using PCR. Results Sixty‐two patients with documented H1N1 infection were reported: 16 had recently stopped therapy, 2 were at the diagnosis stage, and 44 were receiving therapy. The clinical course was severe (requiring ICU admission) in only 1 patient, moderate (requiring hospital admission) in 38, and mild in the remaining 23 (37%), treated as outpatients. While none of the patients died of H1N1‐related complications, two patients died of progressive cancer; in all of the remaining cases, symptoms resolved within 11 days. The clinical course was complicated by respiratory distress or bronchopneumonia in 10 cases. Oseltamivir was given to 82% of patients. Chemotherapy was temporarily withdrawn in 54% of cases for a median time of 21 days (range, 4–43 days). Conclusion H1N1 infection in children with cancer was not reported as the cause of death in any case but resulted in reduced intensity of anti‐cancer therapy. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2010;55:226–228. © 2010 Wiley–Liss, Inc.