The Biden administration launched an effort to increase the supply of vaccines available to dialysis patients, a portion of the population at the highest risk for severe illness due to COVID-19.
“People on dialysis who contract COVID-19 often have severe health outcomes and have a 50% hospitalization rate and a mortality rate between 20-30% from COVID-19,” Biden administration officials said in the outline of a $10 billion initiative to expand access to coronavirus vaccines.
The administration will partner with dialysis centers to provide vaccinations to patients and staff. The partnership will allow the federal government to send COVID-19 vaccines directly to the clinics to allow patients to get the shots during their routine dialysis appointments, which usually require three four-hour sessions each week.
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Patients diagnosed with kidney disease who will require dialysis treatments in the long term were more than five times more likely to be infected with COVID-19 and nearly four times as likely to die than the general population, according to a February study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
The study found that of 12,501 dialysis patients, 187 were diagnosed with COVID-19. Nearly 63% of those patients were hospitalized, and 28.3% died.
Kidney health advocacy group the American Kidney Fund applauded President Joe Biden’s plan on Thursday, calling it “a major step forward in protecting people with kidney failure” and in addressing disparities in the healthcare system “that disproportionately impact the kidney patient community.”
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“Most patients have been unable to socially distance, going to clinics three times each week to receive their life-sustaining treatment,” the American Kidney Fund said. “Dialysis providers routinely vaccinate their patients against influenza, pneumonia, and hepatitis B, and they are equipped to vaccinate against COVID-19.”
