@article {1636, title = {Morbidity of pandemic H1N1 influenza in children with cancer.}, journal = {Pediatr Blood Cancer}, volume = {55}, year = {2010}, month = {2010 Aug}, pages = {226-8}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: To define the mortality and the current impact of the H1N1 pandemic in pediatric hematology-oncology centers, we performed a specific survey.

PROCEDURE: Pharyngeal swabs from patients with fevers of unknown origin, flu-like symptoms or bronchopneumonia were screened for H1N1 using PCR.

RESULTS: Sixty-two patients with documented H1N1 infection were reported: 16 had recently stopped therapy, 2 were at the diagnosis stage, and 44 were receiving therapy. The clinical course was severe (requiring ICU admission) in only 1 patient, moderate (requiring hospital admission) in 38, and mild in the remaining 23 (37\%), treated as outpatients. While none of the patients died of H1N1-related complications, two patients died of progressive cancer; in all of the remaining cases, symptoms resolved within 11 days. The clinical course was complicated by respiratory distress or bronchopneumonia in 10 cases. Oseltamivir was given to 82\% of patients. Chemotherapy was temporarily withdrawn in 54\% of cases for a median time of 21 days (range, 4-43 days).

CONCLUSION: H1N1 infection in children with cancer was not reported as the cause of death in any case but resulted in reduced intensity of anti-cancer therapy.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Antineoplastic Agents, Cause of Death, Child, Child, Preschool, Data Collection, Disease Outbreaks, Humans, Influenza A Virus, H1N1 Subtype, Influenza, Human, Leukemia, Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin, Morbidity, Neoplasms, Treatment Outcome, Young Adult}, issn = {1545-5017}, doi = {10.1002/pbc.22619}, author = {Caselli, D{\'e}sir{\'e}e and Carraro, Francesca and Castagnola, Elio and Ziino, Ottavio and Frenos, Stefano and Milano, Giuseppe Maria and Livadiotti, Susanna and Cesaro, Simone and Marra, Nicoletta and Zanazzo, Giulio and Meazza, Cristina and Cellini, Monica and Aric{\`o}, Maurizio} }