After more than three years, much of the world has moved on from COVID-19. Attention is being re-directed from protecting against the disease to other areas such as economic recovery. Government and healthcare organisations have reduced their sense of urgency, and much of the general public has started to fully embrace a return to pre-pandemic life.
Attention is being re-directed from protecting against the disease to other areas such as economic recovery. Government and healthcare organisations have reduced their sense of urgency, and much of the general public has started to fully embrace a return to pre-pandemic life.
However, the burden on immunocompromised (IC) individuals is still significant and likely to remain heading into 2023-2024 winter season.1 Many who are immunocompromised cannot mount an adequate response to COVID-19 vaccination, and therefore remain at higher risk for severe COVID-19, hospitalisation and death than the general population.2,3 This can leave them feeling frustrated, isolated and unprotected.
In May 2023, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 no longer constitutes a public health emergency. Yet, COVID-19 presents a greater threat of disruption to public health than other prevalent respiratory diseases such as influenza or RSV and continues to impact patients and healthcare systems worldwide:
Vaccines require a healthy immune system and help jumpstart the body’s natural ability to produce infection-fighting cells.8 Thus, people with compromised immune systems such as people with cancer, organ transplant recipients or people taking immunosuppressive medicines may not be well protected against COVID-19, even when vaccinated. In fact, more than one in 10 IC patients do not develop the antibodies needed for protection even after five or more COVID-19 vaccinations.9
With the rapid evolution of Omicron variants that reduced or removed authorised therapies for COVID-19 prevention, many IC individuals are now left without active or passive protection while potential new therapies are being studied.
IC populations remain at higher risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes than people with healthy immune systems. This includes a higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection, severe disease, hospitalisation, ICU admission and death as well as associated costs.
Read full article here: https://www.astrazeneca.com/what-science-can-do/topics/covid-19/burden-of-disease.html
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