COVID-19—Importance for Patients on the Waiting List and after Kidney Transplantation—A Single Center Evaluation in 2020–2021

Abstract

(1) Background: Dialysis patients and recipients of a kidney allograft are at high risk for infection with SARS-CoV-2. It has been shown that the development of potent neutralizing humoral immunity against SARS CoV-2 leads to an increased probability of survival. However, the question of whether immunocompromised patients develop antibodies has not yet been sufficiently investigated; (2) Methods: SARS-CoV-2 antibodies were examined in hemodialysis patients on the waiting list for kidney transplantation as well as patients after kidney transplantation. Patients were interviewed about symptoms and comorbidities, BMI, and smoking history; (3) Results: SARS-CoV-2 antibodies were found in 16 out of 259 patients (6%). The trend of infections here reflects the general course of infection in Germany with a peak in November/December of 2020. Remarkably, patients on the waiting list experienced only mild disease. In contrast, transplanted patients had to be hospitalized but recovered rapidly from COVID-19. Most interesting is that all immunosuppressed patients developed antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 after infection; (4) Conclusions: Even with extensive hygiene concepts, an above-average number of patients were infected with SARS-CoV-2 during the second wave of infections in Germany. Because SARS-CoV-2 infection triggered the formation of antibodies even in these immunocompromised patients, we expect vaccination to be effective in this group of patients. Thus, dialysis patients and patients after kidney transplantation should be given high priority in vaccination programs.

Keywords

• COVID-19
• waiting list
• hemodialysis
• kidney transplantation