COVID deadly for dialysis patients

Infections, hospitalisations and mortality significantly reduced among people who had taken at least one dose of vaccine: study

Conversion of dialysis centres into COVID centres during the devastating second wave has greatly affected treatment and discouraged patients from attending dialysis sessions. This has resulted in an increase in mortality among the dialysis population within the period from 15% in 2019 to 20% in 2020, said a study conducted by dialysis network NephroPlus on Thursday.

The study sampled 17,662 patients in the second wave; 1,111 or 6.2% of the screened patients were infected with COVID-19 and a staggering mortality of 32.76% was observed amongst these patients. 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-infected people was 53.63, with 45% of all infected persons above the age of 55.

NephroPlus undertook the research to understand the impact of COVID on dialysis patients in terms of infections, hospitalisations and mortality as also the benefits of vaccination, and stated that the vaccines are truly effective. The work has been published in the reputed international “Nephrology Journal, Kidney International Reports”, said a press release.