Addressing Anxiety About CLL and COVID
Addressing Anxiety About CLL and COVID from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.
Many patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) worry about how they may be impacted by COVID. Dr. Seema Bhat shares advice for CLL patients who are anxious about being immunocompromised and what they can do to protect themselves
Seema Bhat, MD is a hematologist at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – The James. Learn more about Dr. Bhat.
Related Resources:
|
|
|
Transcript:
Katherine:
What about worry and anxiety related to COVID and compromised immunity? What would you like patients to know?
Dr. Bhat:
So, COVID has become another source of anxiety, unfortunately, for many of our patients, and rightly so. Our patients with CLL are considered immunocompromised, meaning that their immune systems do not work that well, which makes these patients very susceptible to different kinds of infections, COVID being one of them. And this was actually shown by some of the early COVID-related studies that showed a very high mortality in patients with CLL.
This has improved now, mostly because now we are better equipped to handle COVID. We have COVID-directed medications available, but the major impact has been made by the vaccines. So, we highly encourage our patients to get vaccinated against COVID and keep up to date with the latest CDC guidelines. Also, we have Evusheld available, which is under emergency use authorization, and our patients with CLL, due to their weaker immune system, are eligible to get this, which adds an extra layer of protection for our patients.
Also, it’s important to know that our test – if our patients test do test positive for COVID, they should let their team of doctors know immediately, since now we have monoclonal antibodies and pills that can be used to treat symptomatic COVID.
Katherine:
That’s great information, thank you.
