New York, Oct 20 (IANS): Among cirrhosis patients, receiving a third dose of the vaccine was associated with an 80 per cent reduction in overall Covid-19 and a 100 per cent reduction in the severe course of the infection or death, says a new report.

The study, published in the Journal of Hepatology, suggested that patients with cirrhosis should be encouraged to receive a third dose for effective protection because it appears to be highly effective against severe outcomes of Covid-19.

"Patients with cirrhosis are particularly vulnerable to the impact of Covid-19, presenting higher hospitalization and mortality rates compared to those without liver disease," said lead author Binu V. John from the University of Miami in the US.

"These findings inspired us to focus on the next question: What is the additional benefit of booster doses in cirrhosis, and particularly against the delta and omicron variants," John added.

For the study, the team performed a retrospective cohort study of patients with cirrhosis who received two or three doses of either the Pfizer BNT162b2 mRNA or Moderna mRNA-1273 vaccines at the Veterans Health Administration between December 18, 2020 and February 11, 2022, when the delta and omicron variants were active.

Around 13,000 participants who received three doses of the vaccine were propensity-matched with 13,000 controls who had received two doses.Patients who received three doses were evaluated for the development of Covid-19 and disease severity.

The findings showed that the receipt of the third dose of either the BNT162b2 mRNA or the mRNA-1273 vaccines is associated with an 80 per cent decrease in the development of Covid-19 and symptomatic Covid-19, and a 100 per cent reduction in severe or critical Covid-19 and Covid-19-related death, compared to participants with cirrhosis who received only 2 doses.