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Review
. 2021 Apr;74(4):944-951.
doi: 10.1016/j.jhep.2021.01.032. Epub 2021 Feb 6.

EASL position paper on the use of COVID-19 vaccines in patients with chronic liver diseases, hepatobiliary cancer and liver transplant recipients

Markus Cornberg  1 , Maria Buti  2 , Christiane S Eberhardt  3 , Paolo Antonio Grossi  4 , Daniel Shouval  5
Affiliations
Review

EASL position paper on the use of COVID-19 vaccines in patients with chronic liver diseases, hepatobiliary cancer and liver transplant recipients

Markus Cornberg et al. J Hepatol. 2021 Apr.

Abstract

According to a recent World Health Organization estimate, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, which originated in China in 2019, has spread globally, infecting nearly 100 million people worldwide by January 2021. Patients with chronic liver diseases (CLD), particularly cirrhosis, hepatobiliary malignancies, candidates for liver transplantation, and immunosuppressed individuals after liver transplantation appear to be at increased risk of infections in general, which in turn translates into increased mortality. This is also the case for SARS-CoV-2 infection, where patients with cirrhosis, in particular, are at high risk of a severe COVID-19 course. Therefore, vaccination against various pathogens including SARS-CoV-2, administered as early as possible in patients with CLD, is an important protective measure. However, due to impaired immune responses in these patients, the immediate and long-term protective response through immunisation may be incomplete. The current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has led to the exceptionally fast development of several vaccine candidates. A small number of these SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidates have already undergone phase III, placebo-controlled, clinical trials in healthy individuals with proof of short-term safety, immunogenicity and efficacy. However, although regulatory agencies in the US and Europe have already approved some of these vaccines for clinical use, information on immunogenicity, duration of protection and long-term safety in patients with CLD, cirrhosis, hepatobiliary cancer and liver transplant recipients has yet to be generated. This review summarises the data on vaccine safety, immunogenicity, and efficacy in this patient population in general and discusses the implications of this knowledge on the introduction of the new SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.

Keywords: COVID-19; Cirrhosis; Influenza; Liver transplantation; SARS-CoV-2; Vaccine.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest MC reports personal fees from Abbvie, personal fees from Gilead Sciences, personal fees from Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD), personal fees from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), personal fees from Janssen-Cilag, personal fees from Spring Bank Pharmaceuticals, personal fees from Novartis, from Swedish Orphan Biovitrum (SOBI), personal fees from Falk Foundation, grants and personal fees from Roche, outside the submitted work. PAG reports personal fees from Merck, Sharp & Dohme, personal fees from Biotest, personal fees from Angelini, personal fees from Nordic Pharma, personal fees from Vertex, personal fees from Gilead, personal fees from Astellas, outside the submitted work. MB, CSE and DS have nothing to disclose.

Comment in

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