Over 661,000 Americans suffer from renal failure. Four hundred sixty-eight thousand of these people are on dialysis, while around 193,000 have a working kidney transplant. One of the most effective treatments for kidney failure is dialysis, and it is a widely available treatment in the present day.
Though, as per experts, everyone was supposed to be given two doses only, those who have severe medical conditions need to have one more dose so that they can have effective immunity against the viral infection.
The Hidden Benefit Of The Third Covid Vaccine For Dialysis Patients
Those who suffer from heavy sugar fluctuations, cancer, or even kidney diseases may have lower immunity that makes them vulnerable to such infection. To avoid any such complex situation, the experts recommend a booster dose to such patients and help them stay protected.
The way these vaccines work is by introducing an inactive virus, and this mimics the actual response by the immune system, and the immune system prepares the required antibodies.
These antibodies are already present, and the memory can help you avoid being infected or sick again from the same virus.
“To put it simply, particular immunity is built on antibodies that prevent disease and immune cells that may destroy infected cells,” adds Director Nina Babel, head of the immunology-focused Center for Translational Medicine. She and her colleagues created a technology that provides insight into the condition of the immune system. To that purpose, the researchers evaluate if a person has functional antibodies and lymphocytes against a specific infection in a test tube.
Dialysis patients have a weakened immune system compared to healthy persons. There are various drugs given to dialysis patients, and these drugs act as immune-suppressors, and they reduce the effectiveness of the immune system for the medicine to work effectively. The availability of an immune-boosting vaccine is a huge advantage as it helps to restore lost immunity.
“It was also seen that a new few of our patients produce no or very few vaccine-specific antibodies after SARS-Cov-2 inoculation,” says Dr. OkanCinkilic, nephrologist and dialysis center director in Schwerte. However, it is precisely this group of chronically unwell persons that get severe COVID-19 infections.
Furthermore, it is unknown how dialysis patients’ immune systems react to viral strains such as the Delta version. The researchers set out to see if patients might benefit from a third coronavirus immunization.
The current study looked at 23 dialysis patients who showed a lower immunization response following a second injection with an mRNA vaccine against COVID-19. They were all given the third dosage. Twenty of them had a strong antibody titer and a killer cell response to the SARS-Cov-2 coronavirus.
The researchers also looked at 25 individuals whose immune systems had previously developed significant levels of antibodies and killer cells following a second dose. “Intriguingly, despite being a high responder after the second dosage, their immune response was lower than that of individuals who did not react to the first two doses and required the third.”
“These findings are therapeutically meaningful,” says OkanCinkilic, summarizing the findings. The third vaccination round may be beneficial not just for patients who had a decreased vaccination response or no reaction at all after the first two doses but also for individuals who had a good antibody response after the first two injections. As a result, our findings confirm the newly published proposal of the Standing Committee on Immunization, which calls for a third vaccination dose for those with compromised immunity, such as dialysis patients. Research is still ongoing on these aspects, and we can expect much better and solid results that can help in better treatment.
