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UNC’s Erica Brenner, MD, A. Sidney Barritt IV, MD, and Andrew M. Moon, MD, are co-authors of the study with colleagues at Oxford University.


Three UNC researchers are co-authors of a new international study, published online August 28 in The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology, that found patients with a liver transplant who are infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, do not face an increased risk of death compared to other patients who were infected with SARS-CoV-2.

“We studied over 150 patients from 18 countries with a liver transplant and found that despite immunosuppression, these patients were not at risk of excess mortality compared to other patients who were infected with SARS-CoV-2,” said A. Sidney Barritt IV, MD, MSCR, associate professor in the UNC School of Medicine and director of clinical hepatology at UNC Medical Center.

The study concluded that liver transplantation was not independently associated with death, whereas increased age and presence of comorbidities were.

Co-authors of the study from UNC are Barritt, Erica J. Brenner, MD, and Andrew M. Moon, MD. The lead author is Gwilym J. Webb, PhD, of Oxford University.