Covid-19 in Immunocompromised Hosts: A Systematic Review of Disease Severity, Immune Response, and Clinical Management Strategies
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51459/jostir.2025.1.Special-Issue.0126Abstract
This study presents findings from a systematic review of Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) which has posed great threat to the world, causing devastating effects, especially, on health, social life and economy. Data show that immunocompetent patients have been affected with COVID-19, however, much impact have rather, been reported on the immunocompromised patients as they have elevated risk of severe outcomes of morbidity, resulting in increased hospitalization and death from SAR-CoV-2 infection. This contributed to increased number of cases and death worldwide. The review gives an overview of the diagnoses, immmunocompromised conditions, impacts and clinical management strategies of immunocompromised patients. It adopts a systematic review as a design to collate and analyze the impacts of COVID-19 on immunocompromised patients from literature covering 2019 and 2025. Results revealed that complement protein deficiencies, defect in innate immunity, antibody deficiencies, T and B lymphocytes deficiencies, autoinflammatory disorders among others have been identified as the cause of Primary Immmunocompromised Disorders while major medical conditions and treatments such as cancer, HIV, solid-organ transplantation and immunosuppressive drugs caused Secondary Immmunocompromised Disorders. Clinical therapies identified were the use of pre-exposure prophylaxis, monoclonal antibodies, lymphocyte infusion, antiviral drugs, antiretroviral therapy and immunoglobulin maintenance. However, Immunocompromised conditions varies from persons to persons, therefore, specific clinical therapeutic measures should be used by health care providers depending on the type of immunocompromised conditions for proper management of COVID-19 infection.Keywords: COVID-19; immunocompromised patients; immunocompetent patients; Primary Immunocompromised Disorders (PIDs); Secondary Immunocompromised Disorders (SIDs)
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