Hyderabad: Death risk cut by 50% for dialysis patients after first Covid dose, says study

HYDERABAD: A study on impact of pandemic on dialysis patients has shown that even a single shot of the vaccine helped limit infection, hospitalisation and also cut risk of death by 50%.
“We found that those patients on dialysis who had taken even one dose of the vaccine had as much as 33% reduced risk of getting Covid-19 compared to the unvaccinated. What was even more notable that the risk of death in case of Covid-19 infection was halved,” said principal investigator Dr Vivekanand Jha.

The study by NephroPlus, a network of dialysis centres, was carried out for the first and the second Covid-19 wave across the country.
Of the 14,573 dialysis patients who were part of the study during the first wave, it was found that 99% of those infected with Covid-19 had to be hospitalised for an average of 12 days and the mortality rate stood at 23%.
During the second wave, the study monitored 17,662 dialysis patients across the country and had a higher mortality rate.
“Of these 17,662 dialysis patients, 1,111 or over 6% were infected with Covid-19, but the mortality was a staggering 32.7%. This is far greater than mortality recorded in 2019 within the same period. Age is another important variable that comes to bear in the study. The mean age of Covid-19 infected people was 53.6, with 45% of all affected above the age of 55,” read the study published in the international nephrology journal, Kidney International Reports.
The ripple effect on dialysis patients not infected with Covid-19 was also found to be massive.
“Due to various factors such as closure of dialysis centres after being converted as Covid centres by government and reluctance to go for dialysis sessions resulting in reduced frequency of treatment, mortality among uninfected dialysis patients increased from 15% to 20% this year compared to previous year. This shows that even those not infected with Covid-19 had poorer outcomes,” the study revealed.