• Monika M Biernat, Aleksander Zińczuk, Paweł Biernat, Aleksandra Bogucka-Fedorczuk, Jacek Kwiatkowski, Elżbieta Kalicińska, Dominik Marciniak, Krzysztof Simon, and Tomasz Wróbel.
• Department and Clinic of Haematology, Blood Neoplasms, and Bone Marrow Transplantation, Wroclaw Medical University, Pasteura Street 4, 50-367, Wroclaw, Poland. Electronic address: monika.biernat@umed.wroc.pl.
• J. Clin. Virol. 2020 Sep 1; 130: 104574.

BackgroundHere we report nosocomial outbreak of COVID-19 among patients in a haematological unit. To our knowledge this is the first report from Central Europe comparing morbidity and mortality in infected and non-infected patients after exposure to SARS-CoV-2.MethodsThe outbreak involved 39 individuals: 19 patients and 20 health care workers. The SARS-CoV-2 test by nasopharyngeal swabs was performed by real-time RT-PCR. Exposed patients were divided into two groups: quarantine patients with and without COVID-19. All patients were prospectively examined at the following time points: 0, 7 days, 14 days, 21 days and 28 days after confirmation or exclusion of SARS-CoV-2.ResultsInfection was confirmed in a total of 5/20 health care workers and 10/19 patients. Among the patients positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection, the mortality rate was 36.8 %. The probability of death in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 increased 8-fold (p = 0.03). Bacterial, fungal, and viral co-infection significantly decreased survival in these patients (p < 0.05). Additionally, the probability of death was much higher in patients older than 40 years of age (p = 0.032).ConclusionThis study showed significantly higher mortality rate in COVID-19 patients with haematologic diseases compared to the non-infected patient group. Haematologic patients with COVID-19 have 50 % less chance of survival.Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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