Allogeneic haemopoietic cell transplant services in Australia and New Zealand in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic: a report from Australia and New Zealand transplant and cellular therapies
- Author(s)
- Othman, J; Aarons, D; Bajel, A; Butler, J; Doocey, R; O'Brien, T; Purtill, D; Smith, L; Wilcox, L; Hamad, N;
- Details
- Publication Year 2023-03,Volume 53,Issue #3,Page 323-329
- Journal Title
- Internal Medicine Journal
- Publication Type
- Research article
- Abstract
- BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused major disruption to health systems, with allogeneic haemopoietic cell transplant (alloHCT) services a particularly vulnerable area. Ongoing provision of alloHCT has required dynamic responses at national and local levels. In Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), a high reliance on unrelated donors from overseas registries has posed an additional challenge. AIMS: To describe the impact of COVID-19 on alloHCT services in ANZ in the first year of the pandemic. METHODS: Data from the national alloHCT patient and unrelated donor registries were extracted for a 2-year time frame. Comparisons were made between a pre-pandemic period of 1 March 2019 to 29 February 2020 and the corresponding dates during the pandemic, 1 March 2020 to 28 February 2021. RESULTS: There was a 13% decrease in the number of allogeneic transplants, a reversal of steady increases in previous years, with the largest decrease in unrelated donor transplants. Local donors supplied a greater proportion of unrelated stem cell products. With a switch to universal cryopreservation, the time from request of a product to infusion increased by a median of 25.5 days for overseas products and 14 days for local products. There was a significant increase in the number of products collected but not used. CONCLUSIONS: A strong public health response and coordinated transplant community activities allowed for safe provision of alloHCT in ANZ; however, our data suggest that the timely delivery of allogeneic transplants was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Continued dedicated efforts are required to minimise further impacts.
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Keywords
- Humans; *Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation; Pandemics; New Zealand/epidemiology; *COVID-19/epidemiology; Retrospective Studies; Australia/epidemiology; Covid-19; allogeneic transplantation; haemopoietic; registry; stem cell transplantation; transplant donor
- Department(s)
- Clinical Haematology
- PubMed ID
- 35833788
- Publisher's Version
- https://doi.org/10.1111/imj.15886
- Open Access at Publisher's Site
https://doi.org/10.1111/imj.15886- Terms of Use/Rights Notice
- Refer to copyright notice on published article.
Creation Date: 2023-07-11 06:23:28
Last Modified: 2023-07-11 06:25:37