Household Contacts and COVID Vaccination

The JCVI have advised that household contacts of people who are immunosuppressed are eligible for the COVID Vaccination. To clarify the situation, these are the definitions that guide who qualifies:

Who is a household contact?

The JCVI defines a contact as: “individuals who expect to share living accommodation on most days ……. and therefore for whom continuing close contact is unavoidable”

Who qualifies as immunosuppressed?

This is based on the Green Book Chapter 14a:

• Immunosuppression due to disease or treatment, including patients undergoing chemotherapy leading to immunosuppression, patients undergoing radical radiotherapy, solid organ transplant recipients, bone marrow or stem cell transplant recipients, HIV infection at all stages, multiple myeloma or genetic disorders affecting the immune system (e.g. IRAK-4, NEMO, complement disorder, SCID).
• Individuals who are receiving immunosuppressive or immunomodulating biological therapy including, but not limited to, anti-TNF, alemtuzumab, ofatumumab, rituximab, patients receiving protein kinase inhibitors or PARP inhibitors, and individuals treated with steroid sparing agents such as cyclophosphamide and mycophenolate mofetil.
• Individuals treated with or likely to be treated with systemic steroids for more than a month at a dose equivalent to prednisolone at 20mg or more per day for adults.
• Anyone with a history of haematological malignancy, including leukaemia, lymphoma, and myeloma and those with systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis, and psoriasis who may require long term immunosuppressive treatments.
• Individuals who are not yet immunosuppressed but who are about to receive highly immunosuppressive interventions or those whose level of immunosuppression is about to increase.