The unmet need for COVID-19 treatment in immunocompromised patients

• Published in: BMC infectious diseases Vol. 22; no. 1; p. 930
• Main Authors: D'Abramo, Alessandra, Vita, Serena, Nicastri, Emanuele
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 12.12.2022; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Antibodies; Antibodies, Viral; Antiviral agents; Antiviral therapy; Clinical trials; Combined therapy; Coronaviruses; Correspondence; COVID-19; COVID-19 Drug Treatment; COVID-19 vaccines; Disease; Dosage and administration; Fatalities; Health aspects; Humans; Immunocompromised Host; Immunocompromised hosts; Immunocompromised patients; Immunotherapy; Infections; Lymphocytes; Lymphoma; Monoclonal antibodies; Passive immunotherapy; Patient outcomes; Patients; Risk; Risk groups; SARS-CoV-2; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Severe and/or prolonged COVID-19; Subgroups; Testing; Italy; Antiviral therapy; Severe and/or prolonged COVID-19; Passive immunotherapy; Combined therapy; Immunocompromised patients
• ISSN: 1471-2334; 1471-2334
• DOI: 10.1186/s12879-022-07918-x

Immunocompromised (IC) patients are at increased risk of severe and/or prolonged COVID-19. The recent study by Scaglione et al., addresses the issue of IC outpatients with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Authors describe the real-life use of SARS-CoV-2 antivirals and/or monoclonal antibodies and the clinical benefit in high-risk COVID-19 patients. The study supports the use of early combination therapy in a subgroup of extremely high risk patients, and considers the combined strategy as a gold standard regimen to both increase the effectiveness of early treatment, especially in IC individuals, and, reduce the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 escape mutants. A tailored and standardised therapeutic approach in case of IC out and inpatients with SARS-CoV-2 infection is needed.