Booster doses for especially vulnerable transplant recipients?
“These findings are encouraging for a couple of reasons,” said coauthor Kristin Mekeel, MD, chief of transplant and hepatobiliary surgery at UCSD.
“First, they demonstrate real-world clinical effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination in a vulnerable population,” she noted.
“Second, the effectiveness is better than expected,” she added, “given that studies have found that only about half of solid organ transplant recipients develop detectable antibodies after vaccination.”
Although calls for patients who are immunosuppressed to receive a third booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine may not be necessary, “prioritizing at-risk subsets of transplant recipients based on immunological profiles and clinical characteristics for a third vaccine dose could be considered,” they said, adding it’s still vitally important for transplant patients to continue to mask and practice social distancing.
And it is especially important for transplant recipients to encourage household members to get vaccinated, too, especially given the current COVID-19 surge in San Diego.
The study was funded by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
Dr. Aslam reports receiving grants from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation as well as honoraria from Gilead and Merck. Study author Susan J. Little, MD, received grant funding from Gilead Sciences. Dr. Mekeel has disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.