Transplant patients are typically on chronic immunosuppression, making them automatically more vulnerable to infection with the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the agent responsible for the loss of over three million lives in the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
A new study, released as a preprint on the bioRxiv* server, discusses evidence for subnormal immune responses following COVID-19 in this population.
The history of transplant medicine has shown that these patients, being on high doses of immunosuppressive medication to ensure the survival of the transplanted organ, show poor responses to vaccination and an increased risk of severe viral infection.
