Mumbai: The results of the first pediatric survey of BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation showed more than 50% of children surveyed had antibodies for SARS-COV-2 which caused Covid, eliminating fears that the third wave might affect children.
Commissioner BMC I S Chahal said the results were released on Monday, as “encouraging”.
The presence of antibodies in the blood reveals past and more important infections, shows the person has immunity to the same infection for several periods of time.
The pediatric survey was carried out by the Nair Hospital doctor managed by BMC, with 2,176 samples collected from 24 Civic wards in Mumbai.
To get pictures of all levels of socio-economic, 1,283 samples were taken from the BMC-Run Aapli Chikitsa Network and Nair Hospital that offered a free test, while 893 samples were taken from two private labs.
The survey began on April 1, when the second covid wave peaked, and continued until June 15, said the head of the Nair Hospital Microbiology Dr.
Jayanthi Shastri.
“There is fear that children will be most vulnerable during the third wave because they will be the only part that is not vaccinated against Covid, encouraging us to conduct a survey that will provide answers,” he said.
The survey results showed a total sero-positive almost 51.2% among children.
More children from the economically weaker parts (54.4%) have antibodies compared to more than 47% of the relatively prosperous sector.
The highest sero-positivity in the age group was 10-14 (53.4%) and the lowest in the age group 1-to-4 (51%).
In the age group 10-14, more children carry out their tests in the public sector (58.3%) have antibodies than in the private sector (46.8%).
Incidentally, the recent SERO survey in Delhi also showed 59.3% of children had a previous virus exposure.
When a pandemic began in 2019, it was believed that children were immune to the SARS-COV-2 virus.
However, then it is determined that children become infected by viruses when adults, but they are mostly without symptoms.
Commissioner BMC Chahal said that more children had antibodies now than a few months ago.