COVID antibody decreased significantly within 4 months of vaccination, findings

September 14, 2021:

A study of 614 fully vaccinated health care workers in India found a “significant” reduction in antibodies that fight their COVID within four months of the first shot.

The findings may help the Government of India decide whether to offer booster doses, as some Western countries have done.

The director of the state agency that conducted the study said that antibody decline does not necessarily mean that immunized people lose their ability to combat the disease.

Sanghamitra Pati, a city-based community health research center in eastern Bhubaneswar, told Reuters on Tuesday that “six months later, we should be able to tell more clearly if and when boosters will be needed. That’s it. “

“And we encourage you to do similar research in different areas on data across India.”

British researchers said last month that the protection provided by two doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech and AstraZeneca vaccines would begin to diminish within six months.

The Indian study, published on Research Square’s preprint platform but not yet peer-reviewed, includes two major vaccines: Covishield, a licensed version of AstraZeneca Shot, and domestically developed Covaxin. This is one of the first studies done in. ..

Health officials are studying the evolving science of booster doses, but say their priority is to fully immunize 944 million adults in India. Over 60% of them receive at least one dose and 19% receive the required two doses.

The number of COVID cases and deaths in India has declined sharply since the peak of more than 400,000 infections in early May. India reports a total of 33.29 million cases and 443,213 deaths. ET HealthWorld