COVID vaccine won’t raise immunity in organ transplant patients: Study

NEW DELHI: Organ transplant patients remain vulnerable to COVID-19 infections even after both the jabs of COVID-19 vaccine is administered, according to a study by the Johns Hopkins University, Unites States of America (USA). The study urged people who have compromised immunity to strictly adhere to COVID-19 guidelines such as wearing masks and maintaining social distancing.

The study found that just 54 per cent of the people who received solid organ transplants, developed sufficient COVID-19 antibodies even after administering both the jabs of Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. These findings are published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Dorry Segev, Professor, Surgery and Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, said that the transplant recipients should not assume that administering both the vaccine doses can guarantee sufficient immunity against the SARS-CoV-2 any more than the one dose. He added that according to the findings, such immunocompromised patients should adhere to strict COVID-19 pandemic guidelines and safety precautions.

The recipients of solid organ transplants such as kidney, heart, etc., take drugs to supress their immune systems and prevent the rejection which interfere with the patients’ ability to make the antibodies, the researchers said. The study analysed and found that just 98 of the total 658 participants (15 per cent) had detected antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 21 days after the first dose of the vaccine was administered to them.

Following the second jab after 29 days, the participants with detectable antibodies rose to 357 out of the total 658 (54 per cent). 46 per cent of the participants had no antibodies even after the second jab while 39 per cent produced the antibodies only after the second dose.