CARE IN CRISIS: MANAGEMENT OF HEMATOLOGY PATIENTS DURING COVID 19 PANDEMIC
*Prakas K. Mandal, Prakash S. Shekhawat and Tuphan K. Dolai
ABSTRACT
COVID-19 pandemic is probably the biggest crisis mankind has ever seen. It changed everything; how we live and how we die. Our healthcare is over- burdened and frontline warriors are getting down more than any other illness has ever caused. We need fresh guard and make our priorities regarding individual patient. Our ‘hit hard and hit fast’ has changed to ‘go soft and go slow’. In the disease entities other than potentially curable acute leukemias and aggressive lymphomas, we should consider low intensity and preferably oral therapy. Allogenic stem cell transplantation (SCT) for aplastic anemia should not be deferred unlike autologous SCT for myeloma. We should promote more collaboration, reporting to various registries and make use of digital medicine to minimize in-person visits and categorizing cancer patients into tiers and thus reducing risk of covid 19 infection. Hopefully, with real time data and new information, we will win the war and can answer the big unknowns.
[Full Text Article] [Download Certificate]