From the University of Washington at St. Louis May 26, 2022
A new study reveals that even people vaccinated with a mild breakthrough infection with COVID-19 may experience debilitating, prolonged symptoms of COVID that affect the heart, brain, lungs and other parts of the body.
Although the risks are higher for the unvaccinated, a new study shows the need for more drugs against the virus.
According to researchers from the University of Washington School of Medicine in St. Louis and the St. Louis Health System for Veterans, people vaccinated with mild COVID-19 infection may experience debilitating, prolonged symptoms affecting the heart, brain, lungs and others. parts of the body. However, a new study of more than 13 million veterans found that immunization against the virus that causes COVID-19 reduces the chance of death by 34% and the likelihood of developing long-term COVID-19 by 15% compared to unvaccinated individuals infected with the virus. .
Even people vaccinated with a mild COVID-19 breakthrough infection may experience persistent debilitating symptoms that affect the heart, brain, lungs and other parts of the body, according to a new study from the University of Washington School of Medicine in St. Louis and Veterans Affairs. Lewis Healthcare System.
“Vaccinations remain crucial in the fight against COVID-19. – Ziyad Al-Ali, Dr.
An analysis of more than 13 million veterans also found that vaccination against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, reduced the risk of death by 34% and the risk of prolonged COVID by 15% compared to unvaccinated patients infected with coronavirus. . However, vaccines have been shown to be most effective in preventing some of the most alarming manifestations of long-term COVID – lung and blood clotting disorders – which are declining by around 49% and 56% respectively among those vaccinated.
The study was published on May 25, 2022 in the journal Nature Medicine.
“Vaccinations remain crucial in the fight against COVID-19,” said first author Ziyad Al-Ali, MD, a clinical epidemiologist at the University of Washington. “Vaccinations reduce the risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19. But vaccines appear to provide only modest protection against prolonged COVID. People recovering from a sudden infection with COVID-19 should continue to monitor their health and visit a healthcare provider if prolonged symptoms make it difficult to perform daily activities.
The researchers classified patients as fully vaccinated if they received two doses of Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines or one dose of Johnson & Johnson / Janssen vaccine. At the time of the study, the database used for this study did not include information on whether patients had received boosters.
“Now that we understand that COVID-19 can have lasting health effects even among vaccinated people, we need to move on to developing mitigation strategies that can be implemented in the long term, as COVID-19 does not seem to be disappearing. soon. “Said Al-Ali, who is also head of research and development in the VA St. Louis healthcare system. “We urgently need to develop and implement additional layers of protection that could be applied sustainably to reduce the risk of prolonged COVID.
Such protective layers may include nasal vaccines that are more convenient or potent than current injections, or other types of vaccines or drugs aimed at minimizing the risks of prolonged COVID.
“Getting COVID-19, even among vaccinated people, seems almost inevitable nowadays,” said Al-Ali, noting that 8 to 12 percent of people vaccinated with breakthrough infections can develop long-term COVID. “Our current approach is likely to leave a large number of people with chronic and potentially disabling conditions untreated. This will affect not only people’s health, but also their ability to work, life expectancy, economic productivity and social well-being. We need to have a frank national conversation about the consequences of our current approach. “
Since the beginning of the pandemic, more than 524 million people worldwide have been infected with the virus; more than 6 million of them died – including more than 1 million in the United States alone.
“Let’s say SARS-CoV-2 has been here for 10 years,” Al-Ali continued. “People are sick and tired of disguise and social distancing, and it’s just not sustainable to want to keep doing it. We need to come up with additional layers of protection that allow us to resume normal life while coexisting with the virus. Current vaccines are only part of the solution. “
For the study, researchers analyzed the identified medical records of more than 13 million veterans. The records are in a database maintained by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the country’s largest integrated health care system. The researchers examined data on 113,474 unvaccinated patients with COVID-19 and 33,940 vaccinated patients who experienced a breakthrough in COVID-19 infections, all from January 1 to October 31, 2021.
Patients with COVID-19 were predominantly older, white males; however, researchers also analyzed data involving more than 1.3 million women and adults of all ages and races.
The study does not include data on omicron variants of the virus, which began to spread rapidly in late 2021. However, al-Ali said previous studies suggest the vaccine is effective against all current variants.
Among the other findings of the study:
- In addition to complications involving the heart, brain, and lungs, other symptoms associated with prolonged COVID include disorders involving the kidneys, blood clotting, mental health, metabolism, and the gastrointestinal and musculoskeletal systems.
- The long-term risks of COVID are 17% higher among vaccinated immunocompromised people with breakthrough infections than previously healthy, vaccinated people who have survived breakthrough infections.
- An analysis of 3,667 vaccinated patients who were hospitalized with sudden infections with COVID-19 showed that they had a 2.5-fold higher risk of death than people who were hospitalized with influenza. They also had a 27% higher risk of prolonged COVID in the first 30 days after diagnosis than 14,337 people who were hospitalized with seasonal flu.
- The datasets also compare long-term health outcomes with a pre-pandemic control group of more than 5.75 million people (meaning they never had COVID-19 because it did not yet exist). In general, people who have had a breakthrough in COVID-19 face a significantly higher risk of death and diseases such as heart and lung disease, neurological conditions and kidney failure.
“The constellation of findings shows that the severity of death and illness experienced by people with a breakthrough infection with COVID-19 is not trivial,” Al-Ali said.
Reference: “The long COVID after a breakthrough infection with SARS-CoV-2” by Ziyad Al-Ali, Benjamin Bow and Yan Xi, May 25, 2022, Nature Medicine.DOI: 10.1038 / s41591-022-01840-0
This study was funded by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; American Society of Nephrology; and KidneyCure.
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