JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Matt Rogers is a walking and talking miracle.
He says a COVID-19 diagnosis last year should have killed him.
“Apparently COVID didn’t like me at all. So, we just had a rough time going through it,” he remembered. Read the full story.
A donor kidney from a patient who died of COVID-19 has been successfully and safely transplanted into a grateful recipient who, at 90 days, has shown excellent renal recovery and no signs of the virus, new research indicates.
The case report was published online January 13 in the American Journal of Transplantation. Read more.
MONDAY, Feb. 14, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Lung transplantation is successful for patients with COVID-19-associated acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), with high survival, according to a study published online Jan. 27 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Chitaru Kurihara, M.D., from Northwestern University in Chicago, and colleagues conducted a retrospective case series of 102 patients who underwent a lung transplant between Jan. 21, 2020, and Sept. 30, 2021, including 30 patients with COVID-19-associated ARDS.
Read the full story.
The CDC updated its interim guidance on COVID-19 vaccination to give immunocompromised people a shorter wait for their booster shot.
It is now recommended that people who are moderately or severely immunocompromised receive a booster 3 months — down from 5 months previously — after the third dose of an mRNA vaccine, for a total of four doses. Previewed at last week’s meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), this change was attributed to concern about the immune response and loss of mRNA protection over time for these patients.
Read the full story.
Gene variants increased the risk of acute kidney injury and death in veterans of African ancestry who were hospitalized with COVID-19, according to a new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
A team of Vanderbilt investigators led the study as part of the VA Million Veteran Program COVID-19 Science Initiative. Read the full story.
The majority of liver transplant recipients are able to produce a functional antibody response to COVID-19 infection, according to data published in Gut.
“Our findings suggest that the humoral response of [liver transplant (LT)] recipients is only slightly lower than expected compared with that of COVID-19 immunocompetent controls,” Chiara Becchetti, MD, of the department of visceral surgery and medicine at the University of Bern in Switzerland, and colleagues wrote. “Additionally, we showed that the majority of LT recipients is capable of mounting an adequate neutralizing activity against SARS-CoV-2 and that neutralizing ability was associated with the presence of antinucleocapsid antibodies.” Learn more here.
Recent data bolster the value of lung transplants for some COVID-19 patients, indicating they do as well after surgery as those who needed new lungs for other reasons.
The complicated, risky procedure remains rare, though, doctors said, and there is still much they’re learning about how well transplants work for COVID-19 patients. Learn more here.
“A fourth dose of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine boosted antibodies among half of kidney transplant recipients with suboptimal immune responses after three doses, a French case series found.
Among 92 patients with low anti-spike IgG titers (below 143 binding antibody units/mL) 1 month after the third dose, 50% reached the 143 BAU/mL threshold considered adequate against the initial COVID variants at 1 month following their fourth dose, reported Sophie Caillard, MD, PhD, of Hôpitaux Universitaires de Strasbourg in France, and colleagues.”
Read more here.
“If you or a loved one is a UCSF transplant patient, you can find answers here to questions about the COVID-19 vaccines and how to otherwise minimize your risk of infection.
Should I get a fourth dose of the vaccine?
Yes. For immunosuppressed individuals, a series of three mRNA doses is now considered a “primary” series of vaccination against COVID-19. The CDC has approved a fourth dose, as a booster, that you can, and should, get six months after the third shot.
Does vaccination protect against the latest variant of the virus?
Existing vaccines likely do provide some immunity against omicron, the newest known variant of COVID-19, but boosters are important to maximize protection, according to a CDC statement issued when omicron was first detected in South Africa on Nov. 26, 2021. Omicron is now circulating in the United States and is variant has been labeled a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organization. It’s considered more contagious than earlier variants, though it’s not yet clear to what extent it poses risk of severe disease.”
Read more here.
“DEFINITION: Immunocompromised
Having a weakened immune system can make you more likely to get severely ill from COVID-19. Many conditions and treatments can cause a person to be immunocompromised or have a weakened immune system. Primary immunodeficiency is caused by genetic defects that can be inherited. Prolonged use of corticosteroids or other immune weakening medicines can lead to secondary or acquired immunodeficiency.”
Learn more here.