Dialysis patients vulnerable to Covid: Study

Hyderabad: A study, which provides a snapshot of health impact of Covid pandemic on dialysis patients, has said that Covid-19 infection among them was 20 fold greater than reported in the general population. The study published in the reputed international Nephrology Journal, Kidney International Reports, covered 14,573 dialysis patients in the first wave and 17,662 […]

Hyderabad: A study, which provides a snapshot of health impact of Covid pandemic on dialysis patients, has said that Covid-19 infection among them was 20 fold greater than reported in the general population.

The study published in the reputed international Nephrology Journal, Kidney International Reports, covered 14,573 dialysis patients in the first wave and 17,662 patients in the second Covid wave from major urban centres including Hyderabad, by NephroPlus, the noted dialysis chain of facilities in the country.

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“In the first wave, out of the number of patients infected with Covid, 99 per cent were hospitalised for an average of 12 days and mortality rate stood at 23 per cent. Government take over and conversion of dialysis centres to Covid centres also led to an increase in mortality among such patients from 15 per cent in 2019 to 20 per cent in 2020,” the study said.

In the second wave, a total of 6.2 per cent of the screened patients were infected with Covid-19 and a mortality of 32.76 per cent was observed amongst them, which is greater than mortality recorded in 2019 within the same period.

The study showed that infections, hospitalizations, and mortality were all significantly reduced among people who were vaccinated or taken at least one dose. “We found that dialysis patients who had taken at least one Covid dose had 33 per cent reduced risk of getting infected compared to unvaccinated,” Principal Investigator, Dr Vivekanand Jha said.

Study co-author and co-founder of NephroPlus, Kamal D Shah said that dialysis patients must know that they have a high risk of contracting Covid-19 if they don’t get vaccinated.

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