A study 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 solid organ transplant recipients, hospitalization rates have significantly dropped since the emergence of the omicron subvariant of the virus. The study analyzed data from nearly 2,400 transplant recipients over a two-year period and found that about 19.7% of participants reported SARS-CoV-2 infections, with 7.5% of those individuals requiring hospitalization. The study also revealed that hospitalization rates decreased by 75% during the omicron era compared to previous subvariant waves, although patients who had received lung transplants remained at a higher risk of hospitalization.
The findings suggest that vaccination against COVID-19 is valuable for high-risk individuals, as it reduces the severity of breakthrough infections and lowers the chances of long-term complications. The study’s results coincide with trends observed across medical institutions in the United States. The research team plans to expand the study’s methodology to investigate transplant recipients’ responses to vaccines against other infectious threats and will continue to study strategies to optimize the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines in this population. This includes assessing the impact of selectively reducing immunosuppressive therapy around the time of vaccination.
