Alpha1 and Covid-19: Current survey results, May 2021

Marion Wilkens, Chairwoman Alpha1 Germany eV.

The topic of Covid-19 will certainly continue to affect us for some time and cannot be entirely omitted from this journal. The 7-day incidence rate is declining everywhere and has finally fallen below 9 in all federal states (data from the RKI, as of June 30). The number of vaccinated individuals is rising. On June 29 alone, 886,986 vaccine doses were administered in Germany. This means that 30,352,916 people (36.5% of the total population) are now fully vaccinated. In total, 45,307,672 people (54.5% of the total population) have received at least one vaccine dose.

Most of the symptomatic individuals we spoke to have already received their vaccinations and now feel somewhat more relaxed. But the questions about vaccinations continue, because now our children (from age 12) also have to grapple with the issue of vaccination.

Since May 28th, the vaccine from the German manufacturer Biontech and its US partner Pfizer has been approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for children and adolescents aged twelve and over.

As is so often the case, good news is unfortunately accompanied by bad news: The German Pharmaceutical Journal reports that vaccination with BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine Comirnaty® can apparently trigger myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) in young men. According to a report from Israel, the complication is very rare and usually temporary.

With children, weighing the benefits and risks is more difficult than with adults. You should discuss your child's individual risk with their doctor. More data from other countries where more young people are already vaccinated will certainly follow soon. We cannot currently give a general recommendation. However, we tend to favor vaccination – at least for the PiZZ children.

In Journal 1/2020, we reported on the survey "Covid-19 Infection in Individuals with Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency," which we conducted via our website. Today, we would like to analyze the data again and share it with you. The data is encouraging; many thanks to everyone who participated.

Further data from the survey

• 201 (96.6 %) of the survey participants are affected by alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency.
• The distribution of the genotype of the 201 individuals can be seen in Figure 1.
• Of the 201 people, 48.8% are receiving % substitution (98 people).
• 118 of the participants are female (58.7 %).
• The age distribution of the 201 participants can be found in Figure 2.
• The majority (79.1 %) came from Germany, but the countries Switzerland, Austria, Portugal, Belgium, Spain and Italy were also represented.

We then looked back again and this is what we found:

• Of the 17 infected with COVID-19, 6 were PiZZ, 6 were PiMZ, 2 were PiSZ and 3 had rare mutations.
• Of the 17 people who reported having COVID-19, 14 had their diagnosis confirmed by a medical test.
• Four infected people are receiving substitution therapy.
• 10 are female and 7 are male.
• 1 person aged 0-20, 6 people aged 21-40 and 10 aged 41-60.
• Five of those infected were in hospital.
• One of the 14 confirmed COVID-19 patients required mechanical ventilation.