Less Than 10% Fully Vaccinated People Needed Hospital Admission, Says ICMR Study
A study of breakthrough infection (contracting COVID after two weeks of double doses) in Odisha by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has shown that 274 people had contracted the infectious disease after getting complete doses of vaccines.?Breakthrough infection denotes whether one has contracted Covid-19 after being fully vaccinated.
These 274 individuals had also completed the 14-day window post full vaccination by which time antibodies are expected to develop. Out of the total 274,?only 27 (9.9%) of fully vaccinated people required hospital admissions.?Meanwhile, it also highlighted that one person died among the hospitalised patients.
The study also points for the need for systematic data capture for the breakthrough infections to monitor the emergence of any vaccine escape variants and to plan the next steps in the COVID-19vaccine development by understanding the link between clinical protection and measured immunity against COVID 19 infection.
On seropositivity in both vaccines
The study also notes a significant difference in seropositivity among both vaccines.The Covishield group reported higher seropositivity as well as the antibody titers compared to the Covaxin group in the research.
"A total of 258 (94.2%) individuals were found to be positive for COVID IgG antibodies against spike protein. There were significant differences in seropositivity between Covaxin (77.1%) and Covishield (96.7%). Recipients of Covishield showed higher median titre values than Covaxin among the reported cases which were statistically significant," the study read.
On?breakthrough infections
Meanwhile, it also highlighted that one person died among the hospitalised patients.The study also points for the need for systematic data capture for the breakthrough infections to monitor the emergence of any vaccine escape variants and to plan the next steps in the COVID-19vaccine development by understanding the link between clinical protection and measured immunity against COVID 19 infection.
This research of the breakthrough infection through passive and voluntary reporting was conducted at various healthcare facilities from different districts of Odisha.?
On its limitations
Overall 361 samples were collected for the study... however, the research was continued with 274 subjects as the rest of the participants were either found not fully vaccinated or contracted the Covid-19 infection within 14 days of taking the second dose of vaccine.However, the study also highlights that it some limitations.?
?"Firstly the number of documented COVID-19 vaccination breakthrough cases may be a significantly underestimated of all COVID19 infections among fully vaccinated persons.....secondly the data is based on passive and voluntary reporting of individual, and might not be a complete representation of breakthrough cases as a most asymptomatic individual or with mild illness post-vaccination might have not got tested," it added.
Findings of AIIMS study
However, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Delhi's first study on breakthrough infections during the April-May period confirmed that none of the vaccinated people died due to the Covid-19 disease.
According to the study, in the present group of vaccine breakthrough infections investigated using genome sequencing, closely overlapping and mirroring the Covid-19 cases in the state of Delhi, the variants of concern are B.1.617.2 and B.1.1.7 comprising the majority cases.
