New Delhi: A study conducted by renowned global health journal Nature Microbiology has said that vaccine boosters are required to provide long-lasting protection against reinfection with SARS-CoV-2.
“The present study has important implications when considering widespread serological testing and antibody protection against reinfection with SARS-CoV-2, and may suggest that vaccine boosters are required to provide long-lasting protection,” the study said.
It said that antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 can be detected in most infected individuals 10–15 days after the onset of COVID-19 symptoms.
“However, due to the recent emergence of SARS-CoV-2 in the human population, it is not known how long antibody responses will be maintained or whether they will provide protection from reinfection. Using sequential serum samples collected up to 94 d post-onset of symptoms (POS) from 65 individuals with real-time quantitative PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, we show seroconversion (immunoglobulin (Ig)M, IgA, IgG) in >95 percent of cases and neutralizing antibody responses when sampled beyond 8 d POS,” the findings said.
It further said that the kinetics of the neutralizing antibody response is typical of an acute viral infection, with declining neutralizing antibody titres observed after an initial peak, and that the magnitude of this peak is dependent on disease severity.
“Although some individuals with high peak infective dose (ID50> 10,000) maintained neutralizing antibody titres >1,000 at >60 d POS, some with lower peak ID50 had neutralizing antibody titres approaching baseline within the follow-up period,” it said.
Clarifying on the findings, Dr Tamorish Kole, President, Asian Society for Emergency Medicine (ASEM) told ETV Bharat that it is really necessary to have vaccine boosters for long-lasting protection from Covid19 reinfection. He said that this is a strong indication that covid-19 vaccination will have booster doses.
“This is a new virus and there are reports of reinfection amongst the cured persons. Looking into the present scenario, it is found necessary to have vaccine boosters,” said Kole.
He further said, “In case of the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine, researchers have taken the code for the SARS-CoV-2 'spike protein' and put it into a harmless virus carrier. So, it is possible that the initial schedule for everyone who received this type of vaccine would involve one or two booster doses a few months after the first, in a similar way to the Hepatitis B vaccine.”
Significantly, many current COVID-19 vaccine efforts focus on eliciting a robust neutralizing antibody response to provide protection from infection.
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