Hyderabad: Vaccination reduces Covid risk among dialysis patients

Hyderabad: A study released by Nephro Plus suggested that vaccination against Covid reduces 33 per cent risk of getting the infection in dialysis Patients, compared to those who were not vaccinated.

Nephro Plus released a study on Covid infection and benefits of vaccination in dialysis patients on Thursday. Addressing the media. principal investigator Dr Vivekanand Jha stated that the study showed that infections, hospitalisations, and mortality were all significantly reduced among people who had taken at least one dose of the vaccine.

'We found that those patients on dialysis who had taken even one dose of the vaccine had as much as 33 per cent reduced risk of getting Covid infection compared to those who were not vaccinated. More notable was the halving of the risk of death, even if they got the virus," he said, urging to confine the misconceptions being created by RMPs' about the adverse effects of the vaccines among dialysis patients.

Co-Founder of Nephro Plus Kamal D Shah said 'it is very important for dialysis patients to know that they have a high risk of contracting this lethal virus and die if they don't take the vaccine. That is what our study shows'.

As per the report, in the first wave of Covid, 14,573 dialysis patients were studied. Of those infected 99 per cent were hospitalised for an average of 12 days and mortality rate stood at 23 per cent. Beside this alarming figure, the ripple effect on dialysis patients not infected with Covid is also massive, according to the report.

The government take-over and conversion of dialysis centres to Covid centres also greatly affected treatment and discouraged patients from attending dialysis sessions. This resulted in an increase in mortality among the dialysis population within the period from 15 per cent in 2019 to 20 per cent in 2020. The study further sampled 17,662 patients in the second wave. 1,111 or 6.2 per cent of the screened patients were infected with Covid and a staggering mortality of 32.76 per cent was observed amongst these patients. This is far greater than mortality recorded in 2019 within the same period.

Senior VP, Clinical Affairs, NephroPlus Dr. Suresh Sankarasubbaiyan and others were present at the conference.