Despite having the complete vaccination schedule, the immunosuppressed have increased risk of contracting Covid-19 than those people who do not have this condition. It is the main conclusion that US researchers have reached when identifying the differences between incidence rate following vaccination once morest SARS-CoV-2 among people with or without immune dysfunction.
“Completing all recommended doses of a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine is crucial to preventing infection regardless of a person’s immune status. The findings support the use of alternative vaccine strategies (for example, additional doses or immunogenicity tests) and non-pharmaceutical interventions (such as mask use) even following full vaccination for people with immune dysfunction “, explain the authors of the study ‘Association between immune dysfunction and Covid-19 infection following vaccination once morest SARS-CoV-2 in the United States’.
In this analysis they have focused on observe people with immune dysfunction, including those living with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) or receiving immunosuppressive medications, as they are at increased risk of developing the disease in its most serious state. In this sense, the researchers consider that there is “a large evidence gap for patients with immune dysfunction because they were largely excluded from clinical trials of the vaccine once morest SARSCoV-2. “” Studies evaluating antibody titers as surrogates for postvaccine immunogenicity identified lower immune responses in some groups of people with immune dysfunction “, they emphasize.
Third dose in immunosuppressed patients
To obtain these results, the authors analyzed 604,035 immunosuppressed patients vaccinated with a complete pattern, with a mean age of 51 years and predominantly women. The Covid-19 infection rate was 5.0 per 1,000 people.
Also, having the full regimen does not have the same effect as just one dose. Complete vaccination was associated with a 26 percent reduction in the risk of contracting the virus. Specifically, they found that the highest rates of covid infection following being vaccinated were registered in elderly women, people with HIV, rheumatoid arthritis patients and solid organ transplants.
More in detail, the study points out that infection rate in people without immune dysfunction with complete regimen it was 7.1 percent; while for those with HIV it was 8.9 percent, for patients with multiple sclerosis it was 9.3 percent; 8.9 percent for those with rheumatoid arthritis, from 15.7 percent for thoracic outlet syndrome and 8.6 for bone marrow transplants.
On the other hand, they also indicated that the mean time from complete vaccination to advance of infection was 138 days. Overall, 1.2 percent of patients had a breakthrough infection within 3 months and the 2.8 percent contracted it in 6 months following completing the vaccination. However, the immunosuppressed were infected before Covid-19, specifically a large part following the first six months.
However, it should not be forgotten that vaccines protect and reduce risks. Therefore, the authors emphasize that patients with immune dysfunction experienced a noticeable decrease in the severity of the pathology compared to before vaccination, from 6.3 to 3.3 percent. Ultimately, experts defend the use of third booster dose of Covid-19 vaccine for the immunosuppressed since “the detection of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies increased from 40 to 68 percent following the third dose of an mRNA vaccine in these people. “
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