“Based on our findings, we recommend that transplant recipients and other immunocompromised patients continue to practice strict COVID-19 safety precautions, even after vaccination,” stated study lead writer
Although two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine confer some safety for individuals who have obtained strong organ transplants, it is nonetheless not sufficient to allow them to dispense with masks, bodily distancing and different security measures, in accordance to a study.
This is a follow-up study to an earlier one by which the researchers reported that solely 17% of the taking part transplant recipients produced adequate antibodies after only one dose of a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine routine.
“While there was an increase in those with detectable antibodies after the second shot, the number of transplant recipients in our second study whose antibody levels reached high enough levels to ward off infection was still well below than in people with healthy immune systems,” stated study lead writer Brian Boyarsky from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine within the U.S.
“Based on our findings, we recommend that transplant recipients and other immunocompromised patients continue to practice strict COVID-19 safety precautions, even after vaccination,” Boyarsky stated.
The researchers famous that individuals who obtain strong organ transplants, similar to hearts, lungs and kidneys, usually should take medicine to suppress their immune programs and stop rejection. Such regimens might intrude with a transplant recipient’s potential to make antibodies to international substances, together with the protecting ones produced in response to vaccines, they stated.
The newest study, printed within the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), evaluated this immunogenic response following the second dose of both of the 2 mRNA vaccines — made by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech — for 658 transplant recipients, none of whom had a previous analysis of COVID-19.
The members accomplished their two-dose routine between December 16, 2020, and March 13, 2021.
The researchers discovered that solely 98 of the 658 study members (15%) had detectable antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 at 21 days after the primary vaccine dose. This was comparable to the 17% reported within the March study taking a look at immune response after just one vaccine dose. At 29 days following the second dose, the variety of members with detectable antibodies rose to 357 out of 658 (54%), the researchers stated.
After each vaccine doses had been administered, 301 out of 658 members (46%) had no detectable antibody in any respect whereas 259 (39%) solely produced antibodies after the second shot, they stated.
The researchers additionally discovered that among the many members, the most certainly to develop an antibody response had been youthful, didn’t take immunosuppressive regimens together with anti-metabolite medicine and obtained the Moderna vaccine. These had been related to the associations seen within the March single-dose study, they stated.
“Given these observations, transplant recipients should not assume that two vaccine doses guarantee sufficient immunity against SARS-CoV-2 any more than it did after just one dose,” stated study co-author Dorry Segev, from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
