COVID-19 Mortality Rate Among Fully Vaccinated Cancer Patients

Fully vaccinated cancer patients who had breakthrough COVID-19 suffer from a high risk of 13% mortality rate as per a study at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, published in Annals of Oncology. In addition, the study also showed that these patients had a hospitalization rate of 65%, and an ICU or mechanical ventilation rate of 19%.

The team had collected the study data before booster vaccine recommendation to track the impact of COVID-19 among fully vaccinated patients with cancer.

“Similar results (high mortality rates among fully vaccinated individuals) have been reported in other immunocompromised patient populations, such as organ transplant recipients, prior to the utilization of additional vaccine doses. These findings come at a time of concerns that immune escape mutants such as the omicron strain may emerge from chronically infected patients with weakened immune systems. Thus, the immunosuppressed and their close contacts should be target groups for therapeutic and preventive interventions, including community-level outreach and educational efforts,” says Dimitrios Farmakiotis, MD, an infectious disease clinician at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and a senior author of the study.

Source-Medindia