In a real-world situation, full vaccination against COVID-19 has been found to be over 80% effective at reducing infection in individuals with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) who were on immunosuppressive therapy.

The study looked into post-vaccine infection rates in a Veterans Affairs cohort, and confirmed the benefit of COVID-19 vaccines, especially in a subgroup of individuals who have the greatest risk for having compromised immune system. The retrospective cohort study included 14,697 patients from the Veterans Health Administration database who had IBD diagnosed prior to the initiation date of the administration′s vaccination program. In the cohort, 7,321 patients had been administered at least one dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines. In all, 3,561 patients who received the Moderna vaccine and 3,017 who received the Pfizer vaccine had been given both doses. Unvaccinated patients had a higher rate of COVID-19 infection compared to the fully vaccinated patients (1.34% vs. 0.11%, respectively) in follow-up data. Over a 20 days median follow-up, 14 infections (0.28%) were noted in partially vaccinated individuals. A total of 7 infections (0.11%) were noted in fully vaccinated individuals over a median follow-up of 38 days. The findings were published in Gastroenterology… (Medscape)