• İrem Ceren Erbaş, AsrakHatice KaraoğluHKDepartment of Pediatric Infectious Disease, Faculty of Medicine, Dokuz Eylül University, İzmir, Turkey., GüzinAyşe ÇakılAÇDepartment of Pediatric Infectious Disease, Faculty of Medicine, Dokuz Eylül University, İzmir, Turkey., Şilem Özdem Alataş, Şefika Akyol, Meral Torun Bayram, Refik Emre Çeçen, Dilek İnce, Özlem Tüfekçi, and Nurşen Belet.
• Department of Pediatric Infectious Disease, Faculty of Medicine, Dokuz Eylül University, İzmir, Turkey.
• Turk J Med Sci. 2022 Jun 1; 52 (3): 571579571-579.

BackgroundIt is still not known how an immunosuppressive state affects the response to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in children and adolescents. The aim of this study was to evaluate clinical characteristics, outcomes, and follow-up results of COVID-19 in pediatric patients with a history of immunocompromise or malignancy, retrospectively.MethodsPatients with a diagnosis of COVID-19 who were under 18 years of age and had a history of immunosuppressive chronic disease or under immunosuppressant treatment were included in the study. Patients were applied to our outpatient clinic or consulted to our department in a tertiary center during the first year of the pandemic.ResultsWe evaluated 18 patients with a median age of 15.0 (0.6-17.8) years. Twelve patients (66.6%) were tested because of a symptom and the most common symptom was fever (44.4%, n = 8). Ten of the symptomatic patients (55.5% of all cohort) had a mild disease, the remaining two patients (11.1%) with an end-stage malignancy had critical diseases. Twelve patients (66.7%) were managed on an outpatient basis and were followed up at home, while the remaining six (33.3%) required hospitalization. One patient, who had Ewing sarcoma, died during the follow-up in the intensive care unit, and others were recovered without any morbidities. Lymphocyte (LYM) counts were significantly lower, C-reactive protein (CRP), and ferritin levels were higher in the individuals that needed hospitalization (p = 0.039, 0.027, and 0.039, respectively).DiscussionImmunocompromised children and adolescents with COVID-19 should be monitored closely, especially those with an end-stage malignancy, low LYM count, or high CRP and ferritin levels.

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