A two-year study of organ transplant recipients conducted by the Johns Hopkins Transplant Research Center and the New York University Center for Surgical and Applied Transplant Research has found that while breakthrough cases of COVID-19 remain common among vaccinated individuals, the rate of hospitalization has dropped significantly since the omicron subvariant of the virus emerged. The study analyzed data from nearly 2,400 transplant recipients and found that 19.7% of participants reported SARS-CoV-2 infections, with 7.5% of infected individuals requiring hospitalization. Hospitalization rates dropped by 75% during the later omicron era compared to earlier subvariant waves, which the researchers attribute to various factors including population immunity, improved disease management, increased testing, and potential changes in the virus itself. Certain groups, such as lung transplant patients, remained at a higher risk of hospitalization during more recent subvariant eras. The findings highlight the benefits of vaccination for high-risk individuals and provide evidence-based guidance for counseling and risk assessment.
In future research, the Transplant Research Center plans to investigate the response of transplant recipients to vaccines against other infectious threats, such as respiratory syncytial virus, influenza, and mpox (formerly known as monkeypox). The team will also continue to study strategies to optimize SARS-CoV-2 vaccine effectiveness in transplant recipients, such as reducing immunosuppressive therapy around the time of vaccination. The study was funded by various sources, including the Ben-Dov family, the Trokhan Patterson family, and grants from the National Institutes of Health. The senior study author received personal fees from AstraZeneca, Global Data, the Infectious Diseases Society of America COVID-19 Real Time Learning Network, and Novavax, while other authors reported no conflicts of interest.
