Ensuring continuity of care for children with inherited metabolic diseases at the time of COVID-19: the experience of a metabolic unit in Italy

ABSTRACT

In December 2019, a novel and highly pathogenic strain of coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) caused an outbreak in Wuhan city, Hubei province in China, and rapidly spread worldwide. Following China and South Korea, Italy has been among the first countries affected by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2. After the first cases identified in Lombardy (Northern Italy), the outbreak rapidly spread to other Italian regions. Under these circumstances, Italian clinical centers involved in the diagnosis and management of chronic disorders, such as inherited metabolic diseases (IMDs), had to face new and unprecedented challenges. Here, we report the experience of the Unit of Metabolic Diseases, Federico II University Hospital over the past month, following the first directives from the central government (decrees of the prime minister [DPCM] dated 8 March and 10 March 2020) that mandated social distancing, home confinement of people, discontinuation of most commercial and productive activities—the so-called lockdown—including ordinary and deferrable hospital activities not related to the care of COVID-19 patients.