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Impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the field of hematopoietic cell transplantation in the Asia-Pacific region: APBMT Activity Survey 2020/2021

Iida M 1 , Ho A 2 , Huang XJ 3 , Liu K 3 , Lv M 3 , Huang H 4 Show all authors , Kuwatsuka Y 5 , Moon JH 6 , Choi YS 7 , Lee JW 8 , Khattry N 9 , M Lakshmi K 10 , Wilcox L 11 , Hamidieh AA 12 , Behfar M 12 , Ko BS 13 , Ho KW 14 , Gan GG 15 , Bunworasate U 16 , Hongeng S 17 , Anurathapan U 17 , Farzana T 18 , Sim J 19 , Lee V 20 , Leung MKG 19 , Dung PC 21 , Huynh VM 21 , Rathnayake W 22 , Abeysinghe P 23 , Bravo MR 24 , Dumagay T 25 , Gyi AA 26 , Santosa D 27 , Ardini D 27 , Poudyal BS 28 , Akter M 29 , Batshkh K 30 , Drokov M 31 , Li CC 32 , Okamoto S 33 , Srivastava A 10 , Dodds A 34 , Atsuta Y 35 , Registry Committee of the Asia-Pacific Blood and Marrow Transplantation Group (APBMT)

Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Promotion for Blood and Marrow Transplantation, Aichi Medical University School of Medicine, Nagakute, Japan
  • 2 Department of Hematology, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore, Singapore
  • 3 Department of Hematology, Peking University Institute of Hematology, Beijing, China
  • 4 Department of Hematology, Zhejian University, Zhejiang, China
  • 5 Department of Advanced Medicine, Nagoya University Hospital, Nagoya, Japan
  • 6 Division of Hematology-Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine, Kyungpook National University Hospital, Daegu, Republic of Korea
  • 7 Department of Internal Medicine, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea
  • 8 Division of Hematology, Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, South Korea
  • 9 Department of Oncology, Tata Medical Center, Navi Mumbai, India
  • 10 Department of Hematology, Christian Medical College Hospital, Vellore, India
  • 11 Australasian Bone Marrow Transplant Recipient Registry (ABMTRR), Sydney, Australia
  • 12 Children's Medical Center, Pediatric Center of Excellence, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
  • 13 Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
  • 14 Department of Hematology, Hospital Ampang, Ampang Selangor, Malaysia
  • 15 Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Lembah Pantai, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 16 Division of Hematology and Center of Excellence in Translational Hematology, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University and King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand
  • 17 Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
  • 18 Department of Clinical Hematology, National Institute of Blood Disease and Bone Marrow Transplantation, Karachi, Pakistan
  • 19 Department of Medicine, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong
  • 20 Department of Pediatrics, Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
  • 21 Stem Cell Transplantation Department, Blood Transfusion and Hematology Hospital, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
  • 22 Bone Marrow Transplant Unit, Nawaloka Hospital PLC, Colombo, Sri Lanka
  • 23 Department of Oncology, National Cancer Institute, Maharagama, Sri Lanka
  • 24 St Luke's Medical Center Quezon City, IM Hematology/Blood and Marrow Transplant, Quezon, the Philippines
  • 25 Department of Medicine, National Kidney and Transplant Institute, Quezon, the Philippines
  • 26 Department of Clinical Hematology, North Okkalapa General Hospital, Yangon, Myanmar
  • 27 Division of Hematology Medical Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine, Dr. Kariadi Hospital/Diponegoro University, Semarang, Indonesia
  • 28 Clinical Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplant Unit, Civil Service Hospital, Kathmandu, Nepal
  • 29 Department of Hematology and BMT, Dhaka Medical College and Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh
  • 30 Bone and Marrow Transplantation Team, Hematology Department, National First Central Hospital of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
  • 31 Department of Hemoblastosis Chemotherapy and Bone Marrow and Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation, National Medical Research Center for Hematology, Moscow, Russian Federation
  • 32 Center of Stem Cell and Precision Medicine, Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital, Taiwan
  • 33 Division of Hematology, Department of Medicine, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
  • 34 St. Vincent's Pathology, St. Vincent's Health Network, Sydney, and Australasian Bone Marrow Transplant Recipient Registry (ABMTRR), Sydney, Australia
  • 35 Japanese Data Center for Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation (JDCHCT), Department of Registry Science for Transplant and Cellular Therapy, Aichi Medical University School of Medicine, Nagakute, Japan
Blood Cell Ther, 2024 Nov 25;7(4):129-137.
PMID: 39651061 DOI: 10.31547/bct-2024-020

Abstract

COVID-19 became a global pandemic in 2020 and significantly affected the activity of hematopoietic cell transplants (HCT) worldwide. Despite these challenges, a total of 28,793 transplants, including 18,518 allogeneic and 10,275 autologous transplants, were performed in 719 facilities in 2020 in the Asia-Pacific (AP) region. This represented a 5.1% increase in allogeneic transplants and a 3.1% increase in autologous transplants, an overall increase of 4.4% compared to the numbers in 2019. With respect to the donor source, haploidentical transplants increased significantly by 18.6%, related transplants by 8.8%, and cord blood transplants (CBT) by 9.2%. However, the number of unrelated transplants, excluding CBT, decreased for the first time by 8.2%. As a result, COVID-19 facilitated the growth of haploidentical transplants due to cross-border restrictions. Regarding the changes in the total number of transplants by country/region in 2020, it increased by 2,048 transplants in China, followed by Japan (210 transplants) and Korea (230 transplants); however, 14 of the 22 countries and regions decreased their number of transplants in 2020 compared to the previous year. There was no correlation between the increase or decrease in the number of transplants in 2020 and the Gross National Income (GNI) per capita of each country/region in 2020, as well as Domestic General Government Health Expenditure as a percentage of General Government Expenditure (GGHE-D/GGE). In 2021, the total number of transplants in this region was 34,754. With the exception of a few countries/regions that decreased the number of transplants in 2020, most countries/regions have started to see a recovery in 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic significantly affected the supply chain and logistics involved in HCT rather than its numbers; however, we have found ways to overcome logistical challenges to carry out transplant medicine without delay, even under these circumstances.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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