Covid19

From the American Society of Hematology (ASH) conference, in December (2022): The full abstract title is "Clinical Effectiveness and Long-Term Serologic Responses of COVID-19 Vaccination in Patients with Multiple Myeloma and Waldenström Macroglobulinemia". But let's cut to a very quick summary: As we've long been saying, Covid vaccines work -- even in us WMers!!  Now with this added emphasis: get all your Covid vaccinations. In a little more depth: In this abstract, our friends at Dana-Faber plus others undertook a study of 148 patients, 50 with WM and 98 with MM (Multiple Myeloma).  They looked at the clinical effectiveness of Covid [...]

The Gastrointestinal Society has created a COVID-19 Resource Hub.  Information about it says: “Everything you need to know about COVID-19, including information on symptoms, prevention, testing, treatments, and variants is available in one place at www.badgut.org/covid-19. The site includes active links to each province and territory so you can quickly learn your eligibility for vaccines, testing, and medications, as well as the availability of services in your area, no matter whether you have a gastrointestinal condition or not.” Of particular interest are: The page on Covid-19 prevention (https://badgut.org/covid-19/prevention/), which includes links to the web page of each province and territory for [...]

As you all know, the WM community has many members who are immunocompromised.  This can be for several reasons: they are on, or have recently been on, chemotherapy treatment for the disease (especially Rituxin / Rituximab) they are on BTK inhibitors, which also have the effect of reducing our ability to manufacture antibodies in response to vaccines (as has been reported) the disease itself has resulted in lowering IgA, IgG, and other protective mechanisms, as the clonal B-cells proliferate; even without being in active treatment, WMers can be prone to pneumonia and other diseases These ways of being immunocompromised can mean [...]

Paxlovid is an oral anti-viral treatment, approved by Health Canada.  It is used only once one has contracted Covid-19, and usage must begin within 5 days of symptom onset. We know that some provinces, for example Ontario, have published a web page outlining how its limited quantities will be used, and who to contact if you think you are eligible.  Top of the list of eligible people are immunocompromised people over the age of 18. But we do not have information on Paxlovid availability in all provinces. Or the availability of other treatments, in all provinces. If you can help [...]

A recent report on the CTV web site  (https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/breakthrough-covid-19-infections-more-severe-likely-in-immunocompromised-individuals-pfizer-study-1.5687155) discussed the results of a peer-reviewed medical paper.  The paper was a retrospective study of the effects of Covid-19 on a population of 1.2 million people fully-vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine in the US. The CTV report included the following two paragraphs.  The second of them, especially, can be construed as alarming [your editor’s clarifications added in square brackets]: Of the cohort [of 1.2 million fully-vaccinated people], 17.7 per cent were identified as immunocompromised. Some of the immunocompromising conditions in the cohort included solid tumours, kidney disease, inflammatory diseases, organ transplants and [...]

Lymphoma Canada has kindly put together a collection of all provincial and territorial recommendations regarding Covid vaccines, for Lymphoma patients. For your convenience, we reproduce their table of provincial links here.  But the Lymphoma Canada article goes further, with very valuable Q&As in the Canadian context.  It makes for recommended reading if you are concerned. Read their full article here Province Provincial Recommendations for the Third COVID-19 Vaccine Dose British Columbia http://www.bccdc.ca/health-info/diseases-conditions/covid-19/covid-19-vaccine/vaccine-registration-eligibility Alberta https://www.alberta.ca/covid19-vaccine.aspx Saskatchewan https://www.saskatchewan.ca/government/health-care-administration-and-provider-resources/treatment-procedures-and-guidelines/emerging-public-health-issues/2019-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-vaccine/vaccine-booking#check-your-eligibility Manitoba https://www.gov.mb.ca/covid19/vaccine/eligibility-criteria.html Ontario https://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/pro/programs/publichealth/coronavirus/docs/vaccine/COVID-19_vaccination_rec_special_populations.pdf Quebec https://www.quebec.ca/en/health/health-issues/a-z/2019-coronavirus/progress-of-the-covid-19-vaccination/additional-dose-covid-19-vaccine Newfoundland & Labrador https://www.gov.nl.ca/covid-19/vaccine/gettheshot/ Nova Scotia https://novascotia.ca/coronavirus/immunocompromised/ https://www.halifaxtoday.ca/coronavirus-covid-19-local-news/immunocompromised-should-receive-3rd-covid-19-mrna-vaccine-immunization-panel-4321929 Prince Edward Island https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-third-dose-covid-vaccine-immune-compromised-islanders-1.6175366 New Brunswick https://www2.gnb.ca/content/gnb/en/corporate/promo/covid-19/nb-vaccine.html This [...]

This very frequently asked question was addressed, recently, on the IWMF Connect email list.  This particular answer deserves wide coverage, so for those of you who haven't seen it, it is copied here.  Unlike well-known and well-researched and stable diseases, such as, say, measles, there just has not been sufficient time to do the research into all of the many factors that go into human immunity to Covid-19. How many antibodies does it take to keep a WMer safe, and is there a test to count them? It's an impossibly hard question to answer: The more virulent a viral variant is, [...]