Epidemiologic Study of COVID-19 in Iranian Beta-Thalassemia Patients According to Disease Severity

 Thalassemia is a genetic disorder that leads to chronic anemia and requires frequent blood transfusions. With the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, thalassemia patients are at increased risk of disease.

 We aimed to study the epidemiology of COVID-19 in thalassemia patients and its mortality to determine the disease severity.

 This cross-section study was conducted in the first year of the pandemic. Provincial information was collected. A questionnaire was developed to collect demographic, clinical, and paraclinical data and outcomes using history, examination, and laboratory tests. The patients' data were analyzed statistically using SPSS (v. 21).

 The number of thalassemia patients was 19 387, of whom 442 were infected by COVID-19 (50.9% female and 49.1% male), with a mean age of 36.98 years (16 - 67). Of them, 419 had a positive PCR test, and 23 had no positive test. Also, 98% of patients complained of fever, and 54% had cough. Of 442 patients, 14 (3.2%) died, four having a ferritin level > 5000. There was a significant relationship between COVID-19 mortality and increased pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) (P value = 0.003). Also, there was a correlation between COVID-19 mortality and ferritin level (P value = 0.005), while there were no significant correlations between COVID-19 mortality and respiratory symptoms (P value = 0.30), PCR test result (P value = 0.74), and diabetes (P value = 0.47).

 Thalassemia patients are more prone to COVID-19. Comparing familial and thalassemia patients statistics, the prevalence and percentage of COVID-19 mortality were higher among the patients.