COVID-19: Vaccines safe in IBD, more research needed on additional doses
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A presenter at the Crohn’s and Colitis Congress discussed the latest research on COVID-19 in patients with inflammatory bowel disease.
“[The COVID-19] vaccine is looking to be relatively safe for our patients in terms of their IBD disease,” Serre-Yu Wong, MD, PhD, an instructor in gastroenterology at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, said during the presentation.
Some key points regarding infection and vaccination against COVID-19 in IBD patients include:
- SARS-CoV-2 affects the gut;
- IBD patients do not appear to be at increased risk for contracting COVID-19; however, steroids and combination therapy are correlated with a higher risk for severe disease;
- COVID-19 does not affect disease severity of IBD;
- Anti-spike antibody production is observed in majority of IBD patients vaccinated against COVID-19;
- Steroids are correlated with lower antibody responses and confer risk for severe COVID-19. Anti-TNFs are correlated with lower antibody responses; however, they do not confer risk for severe COVID-19; and
- Further research is needed on antibody response with ustekinumab and tofacitinib.
“TNF inhibitors have previously been shown for other vaccinated preventable diseases to result in or be associated with diminished responses,” Wong said. “So, our natural question is to question that for IBD patients as well.”
- In addition, Wong highlighted topics of interest to watch for in the coming months:
- Long COVID-19 in IBD patients
- Patient response to three doses of COVID-19 vaccine
- Patients who do not seroconvert
- Length of COVID-19 vaccination protection and how many antibodies are needed
- Vaccines protection against delta/omicron variants
- T-cell response
- Best COVID-19 vaccine and/or vaccine schedule
“We did actually try to look at the timing between doses of medication vs. vaccination, and we did not see an association between that time,” Wong said. “I don't think schedules should be changed for medications or for vaccines.”
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