Individuals who are moderately or severely immunocompromised are more likely to have severe COVID-19 outcomes. Preventing COVID-19 and providing long-lasting protection is the ultimate goal for vulnerable populations such as the immunocompromised, especially as the SARS-CoV-2 virus continues to evolve. Immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs) and immunosuppressive therapies used as treatment create a heterogeneous group of immunosuppressed patients, with varying levels of risk for severe COVID-19, largely due to poor vaccine responses. Although vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 reduces symptomatic COVID-19 infection rates and poor outcomes in the general population, vaccination has additional considerations for people with IMIDs, including sub-optimal vaccine responses that reduce seroconversion rates, and rheumatic-disease flare. For those that get infected, the priority is to protect those at higher risk from progressing from milder disease to severe disease, or from needing to be hospitalized and to provide protection against future infection. Rheumatologists are now called upon to have knowledge of which immunocompromised patients with IMIDs are more vulnerable and how to counsel on risk, available treatments and how to access them and also to recommend vaccination when appropriate.3 Globally, gaps in both knowledge of these topics and care for this vulnerable population continue to persist. Developed and offered by Vindico Medical Corporation and supported by AstraZeneca
CME
