Introduction:
At the end of 2019, a novel coronavirus (ie, SARS-CoV-2) was identified as the cause of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, a city in China’s Hubei Province. By 2020, it led to a pandemic that has spread throughout most countries of the world. SARS-CoV-2 disease (COVID-19) primarily manifests as respiratory tract infection with symptoms ranging from those of a mild upper respiratory infection to severe pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and death. COVID-19 disproportionately affects patients with pre-existing comorbidities, such as patients with various types of kidney disease.
The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention published data of 44,672 COVID-19 patients. The mortality rate was 2.3% in this study. This rate was 1.3%, 3.6%, %8 and 14.8% between the ages of 50-59, 60-69, 70-79, >80 years respectively. The main risk factors for mortality were cardiovascular diseases (10.5% mortality), diabetes mellitus (7.3%), chronic lung disease (6.3%), hypertension (6%), and cancer (5.6%).
Patients with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) that occurs mostly from hemodialysis patients are particularly vulnerable to severe COVID-19 due to the older age and high frequency of comorbidities, such as diabetes and hypertension in this population. (1-4)
The currently known mode of transmission of Covid-19 is the droplet route. Compared to the general population, chronic hemodialysis patients have a higher incidence of COVID-19 infection due to impaired B and T lymphocyte functions, susceptibility to molecular immunosuppression and systemic inflammation caused by uremia.(5-7) The presence of comorbid disease and the use of immunosuppression in patients with kidney transplantation complicate the management of COVID-19 in this group of patients. This may be due to the suppression or aggravation of symptoms by immunosuppression, as well as from the underlying disease.(8)
In this study, we examined the demographic, clinical, laboratory, and radiological results of all hemodialysis and kidney transplant patients diagnosed with laboratory or radiological confirmed COVID-19 between 11 March 2020 and 11 March 2021.