Single Dose of vaccine sufficient for those already infected with COVID-19: AIG Study

Hyderabad, Jun 14: People who got infected with COVID-19 need not take two doses of vaccine yet with a single dose can develop robust antibody and memory cell response at par with two-doses for those who didn’t get the infection, said Padma Bhushan Awardee Dr. D Nageshwar Reddy, Chairman, AIG Hospitals, and one of the co-authors in the study conducted on healthcare workers who got vaccinated.
Asian Institute of Gastroenterology (AIG) Hospitals, Hyderabad recently published a study conducted on 260 healthcare workers who got vaccinated between Jan 16 and Feb 5 in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases (a peer-reviewed journal).
The study was designed to assess the immunological memory response in all those patients. All patients were given the COVISHEILD vaccine.
Two significant observations that came out of the study including the previously infected group (people who got infected with COVID-19) showed a greater antibody response to a single dose of vaccine compared with those who had no prior infection; Memory T-cell responses elicited by a single dose of vaccine were significantly higher in the previously infected group compared with those who had no prior infection, AIG hospitals said in its study report released here.
It was concluded that higher memory T and B-cell responses in addition to higher antibody response with a single dose of vaccine given at 3-6 months after recovery from COVID-19 may be considered at par with two doses of vaccine for individuals already infected with COVID-19.
Commenting on the impact that this study can have on the overall vaccine administration strategy, Dr. Nageshwar Reddy, said “The results show that people who got infected with COVID-19 need not take two doses of vaccine yet with a single dose can develop robust antibody and memory cell response at par with two-doses for those who didn’t get the infection. This will significantly help at a time when there’s a shortage of vaccines in the country and more people can be covered using the saved doses.”
Dr. Reddy, the Indian , who recently won the highest honour from the American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) — the Rudolf V Schindler Award, said that “Once we attain the requisite number of people vaccinated for achieving herd immunity, these patients who got infected and received only one dose can take the second dose of the vaccine. At this point, all our strategies should be directed at the widespread distribution of available vaccines and to include the maximum number of people at least with a single dose.”
During the second COVID wave when cases were growing exponentially; unfortunately, the vaccination rate took a downturn.
As of April 27l, when the growth rate of active infection was ~5% and the growth of vaccinated people was just 1.4 percent.
We need to modify vaccination strategy based on scientific evidence and with the objective that a larger set of the population can be covered in the shortest duration.