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  • Living During COVID-19 Whil...
    Foudrat, Elise; Caillard, Sophie

    Infectious diseases and therapy, 03/2024, Letnik: 13, Številka: 3
    Journal Article

    This article is co-authored by a kidney transplant recipient and her nephrologist. By sharing her personal experience of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the patient illustrates the concerns of immunocompromised patients during this unprecedented health crisis. She describes the difficulties encountered at work, the omnipresent protective measures, and the need for appropriate information. The nephrologist, who follows a cohort of over 1700 kidney transplant recipients, recounts the medical team’s struggle to protect their vulnerable patients against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), as a veritable succession of hopes and disappointments. She describes the management of immunosuppression in kidney transplant recipients, the deployment of the COVID-19 vaccination program with the finding of poor immune responses in many patients including those receiving immunosuppressant drugs after kidney transplant, and the first use of prophylactic monoclonal antibodies. From both the patient’s and the physician’s perspectives, the COVID-19 pandemic has required continuous adaptation. Plain Language Summary A kidney transplant patient and her physician describe their experiences during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in France. The patient outlines her ongoing challenges during the pandemic due to being on lifelong anti-rejection drugs; such treatment suppresses the immune system resulting in poor ability to fight infection and poor response to vaccination. She discusses anxieties regarding having to travel to and attend work as an individual vulnerable to COVID-19. In addition, she found it difficult to find appropriate information at the start of the pandemic. Once vaccinated, she did not develop antibodies against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). She subsequently received preventive antibody treatment which relieved her anxieties considerably. However, the pandemic is still very real for her, and she has gone from having an invisible disability—her kidney transplant—to having a visible disability because she always wears a mask. Thus far, she has not contracted COVID-19. The physician recounts her challenge to protect vulnerable kidney transplant patients against SARS-CoV-2, the initiation of the COVID-19 vaccination program, the finding of poor immune responses to vaccination in many patients, and the first use of antibody therapies to prevent against SARS-CoV-2 infection. In 2023–2024, the situation is much more manageable for physicians because COVID-19 is better controlled in terms of severity and management than it was in 2020–2021. The COVID-19 pandemic has required continuous adaptation from both the patient’s and the physician’s perspective.