Inborn errors of immunity are associated with increased COVID-19-related hospitalization and intensive care compared to the general population.

Abstract

BACKGROUND It is thought that patients with inborn errors of immunity (IEI) are more susceptible to severe Covid-19 than the general population, but a quantification of this potential risk is largely missing. OBJECTIVE To assess the impact of Covid-19 on patients with IEI. METHODS A nationwide cohort study was performed to estimate the relative risk (RR) for hospitalization, intensive care, and death within 30 days after a positive SARS-CoV-2 test in an IEI population (n=2392) compared to the general population (n=8,270,705) using data from Swedish national registries. Three time-periods were studied: Pre-vaccination, Alpha/Delta, and Omicron. Adjustment was made for demographics, income, comorbidities, and vaccination status. RESULTS During the Pre-vaccination period 25.2% of the IEI population were hospitalized, compared to 17.5% and 5.2% during the Alpha/Delta and Omicron periods, respectively. For the three time periods the adjusted RR for hospitalization in the IEI population compared to the general population was 3.1 [95% CI 2.1-4.2], 3.5 [2.4-4.8], and 4.3 [2.5-6.7], respectively. The adjusted RR for intensive care after Covid-19 were 5.6 [2.6-10.8], 4.7 [1.7-10.1], and 4.7 [1.7-10.1] for the three periods. Five patients (0.6%) in the IEI population died within 30 days of a positive PCR test compared to 18,773 (0.2%) in the general population during the three study periods. CONCLUSION Patients with IEI had 3-4 times higher risk for hospitalization and 5 times higher risk for intensive care during Covid-19, compared to the general population.