GREEN BAY (NBC 26) — Prevea Health is offering an additional dose of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines for moderately to severely immunocompromised patients and community members, following the recommendation of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
This includes people who have:
- Been receiving active cancer treatment for tumors or cancers of the blood.
- Received an organ transplant and are taking medicine to suppress the immune system.
- Received a stem cell transplant within the last two years or are taking medicine to suppress the immune system.
- Moderate or severe primary immunodeficiency (such as DiGeorge syndrome, Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome).
- Advanced or untreated HIV infection.
- Active treatment with high-dose corticosteroids (≥20mg prednisone or equivalent per day), alkylating agents, antimetabolites, transplant-related immunosuppressive drugs, cancer chemotherapeutic agents classified as severely immunosuppressive, tumor-necrosis (TNF) blockers, and other biologic agents that are immunosuppressive or immunomodulatory.
"The extra dose that's being recommended for those who are in an immunocompromised state or could have been immunocompromised when receiving their initial doses of either Pfizer or Moderna, because that's where the approval is, is really to get them to a level of immunity where we would have expected them to be after two doses, but because of either a medical illness or medications they're on or have been on, did not mount that same immune response that the rest of us did," said Dr. Ashok Rai, president and CEO of Prevea Health.
The extra doses are approved for a small percentage of the population at this time, Rai said.
"If you are immune compromised, you're on with those medications that can make you that way, that you can get that dose today," he said. "So we've already scheduled, we've already delivered those doses and it's important to know that we want to make sure that portion of our population is well protected. So they really need to hear this and really need to go out and get that extra dose."
This third dose can be administered at least four weeks after a second dose of Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. While studies are under way, people who received a Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine have not been recommended to receive an additional dose at this time.
If someone would like to visit a Prevea health center for the sole purpose of receiving a COVID-19 vaccination, an appointment is required. However, you don't need to be an established patient at Prevea to receive a COVID-19 vaccination at a Prevea location.
Appointments can be scheduled online at www.myprevea.com or by calling 1-833-344-4373.
