COVID-19 vaccination among adolescents and young adults with chronic kidney conditions: a single-center experience

Abstract

Background Following the pandemic of COVID-19, the main focus has been on COVID-19 vaccines and herd immunity. Although the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines has been shown in clinical trials, children with chronic diseases were not included. We investigated the side effect profile and safety of the COVID-19 vaccines in adolescents with kidney disease. Methods A questionnaire including demographic information, history of COVID-19, vaccination status, and vaccine-related side effects was administered to the patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) stage 2–5, glomerular disease treated with immunosuppression, and kidney transplant recipients. Results Ninety-eight patients were vaccinated with CoronaVac-inactivated SARS-CoV-2 (n=16) or BNT162b2 messenger RNA (mRNA) COVİD-19 (n=82) vaccine. The mean age was 16.90±2.36 years. The most common side effects were local pain, fatigue, and fever. No serious side effects or renal disease flare were observed. There was no significant difference in the side effects reported after the BNT162b2 mRNA-RNA as compared to the Corona Vac-inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. No significant relationship was found between the frequency of side effects according to age, glomerular filtration rate, immunosuppressive treatments, CKD stage, and the underlying disease. Conclusion Although the reported data are subjective because they were obtained through a questionnaire and studies with long-term follow-up are needed, our early experience suggests that the vaccine is safe and adolescents and young adults should be encouraged to be vaccinated.