Sickle Cell Disease Tied to Worse COVID-19 Outcomes

— Black patients faced 6.2 times the risk for COVID-19-related mortality, reports Lana Mucalo, MD

by Greg Laub, Director, Video, �鶹��ý January 11, 2021

Black patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) were at and COVID-19-related death versus the general Black population, researchers reported at December's American Society of Hematology virtual meeting.

In this video, study author Lana Mucalo, MD, of Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, discusses the results of the .

Following is a transcript of her remarks:

Our aims were to determine hospitalization and case fatality rates among individuals with sickle cell disease in different age groups and compare them to the general Black population. Our hypothesis was that sickle cell disease patients will have higher hospitalization and case fatality rates compared to the general Black population.

So to be able to report cases real time, in mid-March we established the international SECURE-SCD Registry. This stands for Surveillance Epidemiology of Coronavirus (COVID-19) Under Research Exclusion Sickle Cell Registry. Providers were instructed to report only confirmed COVID-19 cases, and after a sufficient time has passed, to observe a disease course. This was a voluntary reporting system, and it contains only the identified data.

This is the table that shows characteristics of our cases. We had 366 cases, and 324 were from the United States. There was a slight predominance of males in children and females in adults. Mean age in children was about 11 years old, and in adults, 34. Both groups had about 70% of HbSS/Hbs beta-zero genotype.

About 46% of children were hospitalized, and about 67% of adults. We had one death in children, which makes it almost 1%, and 15 deaths in adults, making it 7%.

So, California data report case fatality rates for blacks. There are less than 1% in all groups until 49 years, while in sickle cell disease patients, we can see that that percentage goes up to 12%. Also, the mortality rate in sickle cell disease patients was similar, and the highest in groups between 50 and 64, and 65 until 78. While in the California population, we can see that the mortality rate peaks in the age group that is over 80.

Also, our age adjustment shows that individuals with sickle cell disease are 6.2 times more likely to die due to infection.

Greg Laub is the Senior Director of Video and currently leads the video and podcast production teams.