Beta-Thalassemia minor and SARS-CoV-2, prevalence, severity, morbidity and mortality: a systematic review study

Background Since the first year of the COVID-19 global pandemic, a hypothesis concerning the possible protection/immunity of beta-thalassemia carriers remains in abeyance. Methods Three databases (Pubmed Central, Scopus and Google Scholar) were screened and checked in order to extract all studies about incidence of confirmed COVID-19 cases OR mortality rate OR severity assessment OR ICU admission among patients with beta-thalassemia minor, were included in this analysis. The language was limited to English. Studies such as case reports, review studies, and studies that did not have complete data for calculating incidences were excluded. Results and discussion Three studies upon 2265 were selected. According to our systematic-review meta-analysis, beta-thalassemia carriers could be less COVID-19 affected than general population [IRR= 0.9250(0.5752;1.4877)], affected by COVID-19 with a worst severity [OR=1.5933(0.4884;5.1981)], less admissible into ICU [IRR=0.3620(0.0025;51.6821)] and more susceptible to die from COVID-19 or one of its consequences [IRR=1.8542(0.7819;4.3970)]. However, all of those results stay insignificant with a bad p-value (respectively 0.7479, 0.4400, 0.6881, 0.1610). Other large case-control or registry studies are needed to confirm these trends.