New Delhi: “I was fully vaccinated against Covid-19 five months ago.
Am I still protected against infection?” Doubts of this type of sending people, including health workers, rushes to the pathology laboratory.
Some of them demand antibody tests to learn their immune status.
Dr.
Arvind Lal, Chair and Implementing Director, Dr.
Lal Path Labs, told TII that the diagnostic laboratory chain approached 400 demand every day.
Dr.
Navin Dang, founder and chairman, Lab Dr.
Dang, in the same way said they got 20 to 30 requests for antibody tests from people who were fully vaccinated every day.
In Apollo Hospital, Medical Director of the Dr.
Anupam Sibal group said many people sent questions about what their antibody test meant.
“If the level of antibodies is low, they panic,” said Sibal.
Antibodies, also called serological tests, look for antibodies in blood samples to determine whether someone has a previous infection.
These are two types: qualitative, which tells whether someone has antibodies to viruses or not, and the quantitative ones measuring titres antibodies in the body.
Most people choose the second, quantitative tests, according to the lab.
Different laboratories use different reference values to provide antibody test results.
However, some laboratories claim that if the results are more than five times the reference value, say 67 units of the reference value of 12 units, indicate a good level of antibodies.
“If the results are two to five times the reference value, it shows the level of partial antibodies and whatever is less than twice the reference value is considered low,” said one diagnostic executive.
Dr.
Jamal Yusuf, a cardiology professor at the G B arrow hospital, said that many health workers at the hospital had been found to have a low level of antibodies.
“Antibodies are reduced for a certain period of time.
This is why some countries have begun to provide a dose of Covid Booster,” Yusuf said.
According to Dr.
S K Sarin, representatives of Chancellor, Institute of Heart and Biliary Sciences, Vasant Kunj, 15-20% of people who are fully vaccinated do not develop the desired level of antibodies.
“It is also true that antibodies produced by WANE vaccinations for a certain period of time, say four to six months.
But that does not mean vaccines are ineffective.
We don’t know whether the development of the antibody level makes someone susceptible to infection because the vaccine cell response remains effective for A long time, “he explained.
Dr.
Anupam Pain Hospital Apollo said the results of the low antibody titres did not mean that the body would not bring up the immune response when challenged by Coronavirus because humans had cell B memory and T cells were activated and helped fight the virus.
The World Health Organization, US Food and US Drug Administration and Control Centers and Disease Prevention are also recommended for routine antibody testing to assess the protection of the vaccine against Covid.
Post-Vax Antibody Test may not tell the complete story
