key: cord-0692635-ovbg1fps
authors: Tau, Noam; Yahav, Dafna; Schneider, Shira; Rozen‐Zvi, Benaya; Abu Sneineh, Marwan; Rahamimov, Ruth
title: Severe consequences of COVID‐19 infection among vaccinated kidney transplant recipients
date: 2021-06-14
journal: Am J Transplant
DOI: 10.1111/ajt.16700
sha: cc2acd714f4e775d3b64109b105aeedec5221f59
doc_id: 692635
cord_uid: ovbg1fps

As the COVID-19 pandemic has reached its second year, the global worldwide vaccination effort is underway, placing the elderly and higher risk people in higher priority of receiving immunization. These high-risk people include, among others, kidney transplant recipients (KTR), who are known to be vulnerable to higher infection rate and mortality of COVID-19 1 .

To the Editor:

As the COVID-19 pandemic has reached its second year, the global worldwide vaccination effort is underway, placing the elderly and higher risk people in higher priority of receiving immunization. These high-risk people include, among others, kidney transplant recipients (KTR), who are known to be vulnerable to higher infection rate and mortality of COVID-19. 1 A study by Rozen-Zvi et al 2 has shown that over 60% of KTR do not develop appropriate levels of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, with similar findings seen in liver, heart, and lung transplant recipients, [3] [4] [5] but it is yet unknown whether these results translate to lower protective effect of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.

Our KTR follow-up clinical includes 2350 recipients, the majority of whom have been vaccinated with at least one dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech SARS-CoV-2 vaccine (BNT162b2). We have identified 25 KTRs who received at least one vaccine dose and tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 using polymerase chain reaction, at least 14 days after the first dose. Data collection for these patients was approved by our institutional review board, and informed consent was waived.

Patient characteristics are detailed in Table 1 

COVID-19 in solid organ transplant recipients: initial report from the US epicenter

Antibody response to mRNA SARS-CoV-2 vaccine among kidney transplant recipients-Prospective cohort study

Low immunogenicity to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination among liver transplant recipients

Immunogenicity of the BNT162b2 mRNA Vaccine in heart transplanted patients-a prospective cohort study

Early humoral response among lung transplant recipients vaccinated with BNT162b2 vaccine