Corona risk after successful treatment?

[photohound]

I am wondering about the state of the immune system after successful treatment for CLL. My husband's bone marrow was MRD-negative 6 months ago, all blood tests good apart from slightly low lymphocytes. He has been told to expect long term remission. Is he now as likely as the average person to contract the coronavirus?

[AdrianUK]

Honestly, he will most likely be at least a bit low in his immunoglobulin (you didn’t mention that level) and his low lymphocytes will mean that he has almost no ability to create new antibodies to infections he hasn’t seen before. So it would definitely seem that we are at an increased risk of catching the disease and also an increased risk of serious complications and even death. The demographics page here shows that 8% of people with cancer who caught the disease died and 20% of those over 80. No doubt the reduced immunity of those over 80 contributes hugely and unfortunately many of us probably have the immunity of an 80 year old (myself included as I also completed treatment almost a year ago and have lymphocytes of around 0.5 on average)

worldometers.info/coronavir...

Having said that right now the absolute risk of anyone catching this disease are lower than the flu. And especially as this may dramatically change soon, and health services are going to be heavily over run if it does, then I would urge anyone who hasn’t already to have the vaccines mentioned on the pinned page and especially pneumonia and flu. As a family member who lives with someone with CLL getting the flu shot done yourself also to help them could potentially be life saving.

In the worst affected region in Italy anyone over 65 has been asked to stay indoors in their own home for the next two to three weeks. The death rate is definitely hugely skewed to the young as this excellent tracker and list of updates helps elaborate

worldometers.info/coronavir...

[johnl]

I agree with Adrian. All treatments target B cells good and bad so we are left with no way to produce new antibodies against new viruses. If our immune system has another way to fight this virus I've never heard of it. I think are only defense is avoidance until they have a vaccine or can put other peoples antibodies into our IVIG.

john