DISCUSSION:
The COVID-19 pandemic has influenced health, economy and social
practices worldwide. In Pakistan with a population of around 220
million, estimated new cases of cancer per year are between 170,000 and
200,0008. The developing countries endure the major
burden of pediatric malignancies globally. Despite notable improvement
in overall survival of pediatric cancers in high income countries,
children with malignancies in developing countries are still battling
with poor survival rates9. The COVID-19 pandemic has
caused overloading of healthcare systems in all of the affected
countries which has resulted in disruption of routine treatment of
non-communicable diseases especially patients of hematology/oncology in
whom an interruption in treatment may negatively affect the
outcome10.
We can infer that an ample number of pediatric hematology oncology
patients could not show up for their scheduled chemotherapies or
interventions and the ones who could manage to present to the hospital
have not been provided with the optimal routine management facilities.
This breach in treatment and provision of suboptimal care may lead to
devastating long term effects in the form of poor response to treatment
or disease relapse. Apart from disruptions in patients’ care and
management, the pediatric hematologists/oncologists are also subject to
academic, psychological and social problems. Increased challenges in the
management of patients, limited personal protective equipment, and
augmented concern of self-infection with fear of infecting their
families have led to significantly increased stress among the Pediatric
Hematologist/Oncologists across the country.