In-center hemodialysis patients, particularly those who have not had COVID-19 and have received two doses of an adenoviral-vector vaccine, must be given a booster dose with an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine as early as possible, suggests a new UK study.

An interim analysis of a planned study including over 1000 patients on hemodialysis across the UK presented these findings. Researchers in UK assessed the immune response in 178 patients on dialysis, 33 days following the receipt of the second dose of a Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine or Oxford AstraZeneca adenoviral-vector vaccine. Among 108 patients on dialysis without previous COVID-19, antibody response to the Delta variant was 6 times lower in patients who had received two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine compared to the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. Responses to the Alpha and Beta variants were 4- and 3-times lower, respectively, with two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine compared to the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. Additionally, patients on hemodialysis without previous COVID-19 who were administered two doses of mRNA vaccines were found to have similar neutralizing antibody responses as those of similar healthy control patients. Furthermore, among 70 patients on hemodialysis who had had COVID-19, those who received either of the two vaccines had identifiable neutralizing antibodies. The findings are published in The Lancet… (Medscape)