An Indian study found a large drop in COVID antibodies in the four months following vaccination

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A woman receives a dose of COVAXIN coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine manufactured by Bharat Biotech during a vaccination campaign organized by SEEDS, an NGO that typically specializes in providing relief after floods and other natural disasters. on a flyover under construction New Delhi, India, August 31, 2021. REUTERS / Adnan Abidi

BHUBANESWAR, India, September 14 (Reuters) – A study of 614 fully vaccinated health workers in India found a “significant” drop in antibodies against COVID in the four months following the first shot.

The findings could help the Indian government decide whether to provide booster doses as some Western countries have done.

Declining antibodies do not necessarily mean that immunized people lose their ability to fight the disease, as the body’s memory cells can still be started to offer substantial protection, said the director of a state institute that did the study.

“After six months, we should be able to tell you more clearly if and when a reinforcement would be needed,” Sanghamitra Pati of the Regional Center for Medical Research, based in the eastern city of Bhubaneswar, told Reuters on Tuesday.

“And we would ask for similar studies in different areas to get data from all over India.”

British researchers said last month that the protection offered by two doses of the Pfizer (PFE.N) / BioNTech (22UAy.DE) and AstraZeneca (AZN.L) vaccines is starting to disappear within six months.

The Indian study, published on the Research Square prepress platform, although it has not yet been reviewed, is one of the first to be made in the country with its two main vaccines: Covishield, a licensed version of the shot of AstraZeneca and Covaxin developed nationally. .

Health officials say that while they are studying the evolution of science on booster doses, the priority is to fully vaccinate India’s 944 million adults. More than 60% of them have received at least one dose and 19% the two necessary doses.

COVID cases and deaths in India have dropped sharply from a peak of more than 400,000 infections in early May. India has reported 33.29 million cases in total and 443,213 deaths.

Reports of Jatindra Dash in Bhubaneswar and Krishna N. Das in New Delhi; Edited by Simon Cameron-Moore

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