More and more US campuses are requiring patients awaiting organ transplantation to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to reduce the chances of fatal infection. However, doctors are rejecting those who refuse to receive the inoculation, since they are 20% to 30% more likely to die due to an infection.
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A growing controversy has been unleashed in the United States, a country where the application of the vaccine against covid-19 has been tainted by political polarization after the government of President Donald Trump, after numerous assistance centers throughout the country declared that they will not perform organ transplants to people who have refused to inoculate against the pandemic.
As explained by the Science and Technology site, Ars Technica, the measure is not whimsical. A patient receiving an organ transplant should receive immunosuppressive drug therapy to minimize the chance that his body will reject the transplanted organ, making him much more susceptible to disease.
In fact, it is estimated that a transplanted person is 20% to 30% more likely to die from COVID-19 if they contract it.
Because the organs available for transplantation are much scarcer than the patients on the waiting list to receive them, doctors are choosing to prioritize those who received the covid-19 vaccine, as it reduces the chances of the patient sick and, at the same time, lose the organ.
Vaccination prior to transplantation is not new. Both the American Association for Transplantation and the International Association for Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) indicate that receiving a vaccine against hepatitis A and B, against influenza and against tetanus – among others – is a standard process. The only difference is that the covid-19 vaccines have had a recent approval by the health authorities.
“We recommend that all patients on the priority waiting list for a transplant be vaccinated against the SARS-CoV-2 virus (which produces covid-19), as well as all members of their household and close contacts”, the institutions indicated in a joint statement.
“I cannot support anything related to the abortion of babies”
As logical as the requirement sounds, it has been received with annoyance by many people who refuse to receive the vaccine against covid-19 in the United States. One of them is Leilani Lutali, a woman from the state of Colorado. The UCHealth Hospital in Denver recently informed her that due to not being vaccinated, her kidney transplant application would be changed to “inactive” unless she is inoculated against the disease within the next 30 days.
Lutali, 56, who urgently requires a transplant due to stage 5 damage to his kidney, told the AP agency that after being baptized as a Christian, she firmly opposed receiving the vaccine, arguing that cells from aborted fetuses would be used in the manufacture of some of them.
It should be noted that although originally some vaccine and other drug production processes were tested on cells of fetal origin taken decades ago, currently these are “clones” of the original cells, so tissues from fetuses are no longer used.
“As a Christian, I cannot support anything related to the abortion of babies, since for me the sanctity of life is sacred”the woman explained to AP.
Lutali is now looking for options in campuses in states like Texas or Florida, where there are no obligations on covid-19 vaccines.
“I feel obliged since I do not have the possibility of waiting, so they do not give me any other option than to receive this vaccine if I want to save my life through a transplant,” she said.
Like Lutali, there are currently about 107,000 people waiting for an organ for transplantation, of which 90,000 are for a kidney. Furthermore, dozens of people die every day waiting for an organ that never arrives.
Meanwhile, Dr. Kapilkumar Patel, director of the lung transplant program at Tampa General Hospital in Florida, expressed his surprise at the specific rejection of the covid-19 vaccine.
“We make vaccines against hepatitis and influenza mandatory (for all patients waiting for an organ) and nobody has problems with them. Now we have this new vaccine that can save lives and have a great positive impact on the post-transplant recovery phase, but we are faced with this great outrage on the part of the people “, he expressed.
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