Seroprevalence of hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV among multiply transfused thalassemic children treated at Tawam Hospital

The management of children with beta-thalassaemia major is based upon regular blood transfusions and prevention of iron overload. Blood transfusions, however, carry a definite risk of transmitting blood-borne viruses such as hepatitis B [HBV], hepatitis C [HCV] and human immunodeficiency virus [HIV]. This study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of HBV, HCV and HIV as well as the success rate of the immune response to HBV vaccine in 16 multiply-transfused children with beta-thalassemia major. None of our patients were hepatitis B surface antigen positive, and none were anti-HIV positive. Only 3 [18.75%] patients were anti-HCV positive. In spite of the administration of a full course of HBV vaccine to all patients, only 2 out of 16 patients responded. These patients, however, will require more booster doses of vaccine or a higher dose of vaccine

Neuroblastoma - the Tawam Hospital experience

Over the past two decades, there have been significant improvements in the survival of children with different types of cancer. Neuroblastoma is the exception, as in spite of many different kinds of chemotherapeutic regimens, the prognosis of advanced neuroblastoma remains unsatisfactory. This study is an analysis of our experience in the management of 53 children [25 males and 28 females] with neuroblastoma in this part of the world. Their ages at presentation ranged from birth to 10 years [mean 2.9 years]. The majority of our patients [83%] had intra-abdominal neuroblastoma. Five had intrathoracic neuroblastoma, 2 had intracranial neuroblastoma, 1 had oropharyngeal neuroblastoma, and one had metastatic neuroblastoma without a known primary. The distribution of our patients according to stage was as follows: 3 stage I, 5 stage II, 9 stage III, 33 stage IV and 3 stage IV-S. All our patients with stage I, II, III, and IV-S survived. A large number of our patients [62.3%] presented with advanced stage IV neuroblastoma, and this contributed to the high mortality rate [34%] in our series. The exact incidence of neuroblastoma in the United Arab Emirates [UAE] is not known, but it accounted for 7.5% of the total number of malignancies in the paediatric age group. The recently established cancer registry in the UAE should prove useful regarding the incidence and prevalence of cancer in the future