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.