According to the study’s lead author Joseph E. EbingerMD, MS, associate professor of cardiology and director of clinical analytics at the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, “These findings are important because about half of US adults have high blood pressure. .”
In the early stages of the pandemic, COVID-19 vaccinations helped reduce mortality and some of the worst side effects of the infection. An observational study in Israel found that a booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine further reduced the risk of serious illness by up to 70%. Nevertheless, some people who had received the full dose and the booster dose were still hospitalized for COVID-19 during the first Omicron variant outbreak.
The Omicron variant, which is still the predominant type, was first detected in the United States in December 2021, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As of July 2022, seven Omicron subvariants have been discovered.
Although the study group included participants who had received the full course of the COVID-19 vaccine plus a booster dose, Ebinger and colleagues sought to examine the characteristics of individuals whose cases of COVID-19 were severe enough to require hospitalization.
The data revealed that other seniors without other underlying medical problems are also at risk, according to Ebinger. Even if a person has no other significant chronic conditions, a breakthrough Omicron infection severe enough to require hospitalization can affect an adult of any age, especially if they have high blood pressure. Not always who we assume to be the people who are most at risk. The discovery that they are not the sickest of the sick was unexpected.
During the Omicron trial between December 2021 and April 2022, 912 adults in the greater Los Angeles area who had received at least three doses of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine (either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine approved by the US Food and Drug Administration) and were treated for COVID-19 in a retrospective cohort study. Age, gender, race, ethnicity, and clinical data from electronic health records were among the demographics examined. The presence of chronic medical conditions such as type 2 diabetes, kidney disease, heart attack, heart failure, and a history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or asthma are examples of critical clinical features and variables that researchers have uncovered.
According to the data, about 16% of the 912 people who received three doses of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine required hospitalization.
- The risk of hospitalization was found to be increased by advanced age, high blood pressure, chronic kidney disease, heart attack, heart failure, and the time between the last vaccination and the COVID-19 infection.
- Even without other serious chronic conditions, people with high blood pressure were 2.6 times more likely to need hospitalization for severe COVID-19.
- Of the 145 hospitalized patients, 125 (86.2%) had high blood pressure.
“We need to increase knowledge and understanding that receiving three doses of vaccination may not fully protect people from severe COVID-19, especially in those with high blood pressure. In addition, more research is needed to determine the reasons for the link between high blood pressure and an increased chance of getting COVID-19.” 19 disease, according to Ebinger.
The researchers indicated that further research is needed on how to reduce the risks of severe COVID-19 infection, either with more specialized vaccine programs, new treatments or a combination strategy. The biological mechanism behind the link between severe COVID-19 and high blood pressure is another area that researchers believe requires further investigation.
The findings may not be generalizable because the researchers used data from a single medical site for a retrospective analysis.
Source: ANI
Source: The Nordic Page
