THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2021 (HealthDay News )
According to a recent study, those who have received all of their recommended vaccinations are more susceptible to developing breakthrough COVID-19 infection, severe illness, and death.
According to research co-author Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse , vaccination is “first and foremost highly effective for persons with substance use disorders, and the overall risk of COVID-19 among vaccinated people with substance use disorders is very low.”
She stated that it is crucial to encourage people with drug use disorders and alcohol difficulties to be vaccinated and to recognize that even after doing so, they still run a higher risk of contracting SARS -CoV-2 infection and must take precautions to avoid this.
In order to conduct the study, the researchers examined the electronic health records of approximately 580,000 Americans who had the full COVID-19 vaccination between December 1, 2020 and August 14, 2021 and who had never had COVID before.
Breakthrough infections occurred in 7% of people with drug or alcohol difficulties versus 3.6% of those without substance use disorders.
The prevalence of infection varied between cigarette users (6.8%) and cannabis users (7.8%).
According to the study, 1.7% of those with substance use problems who experienced a breakthrough infection died while 22.5% were hospitalized. People with drug and alcohol issues but no breakthrough infection had rates of 1.6% and 0.5%, respectively.
The probability of serious consequences following a breakthrough infection was also shown to be higher in individuals with substance use disorders than in others.
According to results published on October 6 in the journal World Psychiatry, the higher risk of breakthrough infections in adults with substance use disorders appears to be mostly attributable to preexisting medical illnesses and poor health related to poverty.
Rong Xu, director of the Center for Artificial Intelligence in Drug Discovery at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and a study co-author, said: “From earlier studies, we understood that persons with substance use problems may be particularly prone to COVID-19 and severe linked effects.
The vaccine is necessary and effective, but some of these same risk factors still apply to breakthrough infections, according to the results, which underscore that.
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Prevention and the US Centers for Disease Control have further information about alcohol abuse 0.
SOURCE: Oct. 6, 2021, news release from the U.S. National Institute on alcohol abuse 1
Richard Preidt
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