β-Thalassemia Major and Coronavirus-19, Mortality and Morbidity: a Systematic Review Study

Abstract

β-Thalassemia (β-thal) is one of the most common inherited diseases all over the world. These patients are very susceptible to infection disease, and the mortality and morbidity of infected patients will increase. The object of this systematic review study was to determine mortality and morbidity of infected β-thal patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We searched PubMed, Elsevier, and Scholar Google to obtain related papers. The time of search was 21 June until 17 July 2020. All original and review articles and case reports were searched with key words: COVID 19, beta or β-thalassemia (β-thal), mortality and morbidity. Data were extracted after quality assessment of all articles. We obtained seven, 21 and six articles from PubMed, Scholar Google and Science Direct, respectively. Finally, seven articles were discussed in our study. The total number of enrolled patients was 34. Twenty-six patients carried transfusion-dependent β-thal major (β-TM). The most common symptoms were fever, cough, pain and dyspnea. Nine patients died. The result of this study has shown that the mortality and morbidity of infected β-thal patients will escalate.

Keywords:

• β-Thalassemia major (β-TM)
• coronavirus-19 (COVID-19)
• morbidity
• mortality

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Mr Seyed A. Hashemi (Student at Andishmand High School, Sari, Iran), for helpful language editing. M. Zafari, N. Nikbahki, M.T.S. Rad and F. Mohseni conducted the search strategy, screened and selected the full texts, quality assessment and data extraction.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.