CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources has informed health providers and other partners about providing additional coronavirus vaccine doses to immunocompromised individuals.
The recommendation follows interim guidance from the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommending an additional dose of the Pfizer vaccine for individuals 12 and older or the Moderna vaccine for people 18 and older. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the additional doses be administered four weeks after a person’s second dose.
“We encourage everybody who believes they are immunocompromised to go and work with their county health departments and with their providers and their pharmacists to get those booster doses available,” state Interagency Task Force Director James Hoyer said during Monday’s coronavirus briefing.
There are specific conditions necessary for receiving an additional dose:
— Active treatment for solid tumor and hematologic malignancies.
— Receipt of solid-organ transplant and taking immunosuppressive therapy.
— Receipt of CAR-T-cell or hematopoietic stem cell transplant within 2 years of transplantation or taking immunosuppression therapy.
— Moderate to severe primary immunodeficiency.
— Advanced or untreated HIV infection.
— Active treatment with high-dose corticosteroids, alkylating agents, antimetabolites, transplant-related immunosuppressive drugs, cancer chemotherapeutic agents classified as severely immunosuppressive, tumor-necrosis blockers, and other biologic agents that are immunosuppressive or immunomodulatory.