Onkológia 2/2021

Vaccination of hematological and oncohematological patients against COVID-19

Patients with hematological diseases, especially oncohematological patients, are more susceptible to COVID-19 infection compared to the healthy population and they have more sever course of the disease. The efficacy of COVID-19 vaccination and the duration of immunity after vaccination in hematology and oncohematology patients are still not studied. Knowing that the immune response in this group of patients is often reduced, depending on the type of underlying disease and its treatment; however, still there is a benefit from the vaccination to decrease the incidence or at least the severity of the infection. The safety profile of new COVID-19 vaccines in this group of population seems to be comparable to the general population. The aim of this article is to summarize the current international recommendations and policy of the vaccination of patients with hematological and oncohematological diseases against COVID-19 infection.

Keywords: vaccination against COVID-19, oncohematology patients, efficacy, safety