Immunocompromised individuals are at increased risk of COVID-19
breakthrough infection, hospitalisation and death in the post
vaccination era: A systematic review.
Abstract
Immunocompromised individuals have been shown to mount a reduced
response to vaccination, resulting in reduced vaccine effectiveness in
this cohort. Therefore, in the post vaccination era, immunocompromised
individuals remain at high risk of breakthrough infection and COVID-19
related hospitalisation and death. There has been a marked paucity of
systematic review evaluating existing data describing the clinical
measures of efficacy of COVID-19 vaccination in protecting
immunocompromised individuals, specifically against, breakthrough
infections and severe COVID-19. Therefore, we conducted a systematic
review which aimed to provide a summary of current clinical evidence of
the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination in the immunocompromised
population. Our findings demonstrated that immunocompromised patients
remained at high risk of breakthrough infection and severe COVID-19
outcomes compared to the general population. These groups included those
with: cancer, organ transplants, chronic kidney disease, HIV and
immunodeficiencies, amongst others. This demonstrated that vaccination
does not offer an adequate level of protection in these groups,
necessitating further measures such as Evusheld and further boosters.