Updated 20:49 IST, October 20th 2020
COVID-19 re-infection possible if antibodies reduce; ICMR chief gives ballpark
Dr. Balram Bhargava said that there is a possibility of re-infection if antibodies reduce in the body of a Covid-19 recovered person in five months
ICMR Director-General Dr. Balram Bhargava on Tuesday said that there is a possibility of COVID re-infection if antibodies reduce in the body of a Covid-19 recovered person in five months time after the recovery. Dr.Balram Bhargava had earlier revealed that re-infection is a very rare occurrence.
Addressing a health ministry briefing, the ICMR director urged people to continue to wear masks and follow coronavirus appropriate behavior to mitigate the spread of the infection in the country.
"After any infection, antibodies develop in the body. In case of coronavirus, it has been seen that the antibodies last for at least five months. The Covid-19 virus is still evolving and we are learning more about it. If antibodies decrease in the body of a person within five months, then there is a possibility of reinfection and a person may become re-infected with COVID-19. Hence, it is important to take precautions like wearing a mask, even after someone gets the disease once," Bhargava said.
Furthermore, the ICMR chief commented upon the World Health Organisation (WHO) Solidarity Trial and said that Remdesivir and HCQ are not performing as good as it was expected, adding that discussions are being done at joint monitoring group and national task force of COVID19
"WHO solidarity trial is a 30-country trial in which India has been a participant and interim results of this have been put on the website, which has not yet been peer-reviewed. However, we find that these drugs (Remdesivir and HCQ) are not performing as good as it was expected. Discussions are being done at joint monitoring group and national task force of COVID19. We will take into cognizance the trial results and issue advisories accordingly," he said.
However, Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan had earlier said that SARS-CoV-2 reinfection is still not a serious issue as most of these cases have been "mislabelled" as reinfections. He said that such cases in India were negligible at the moment and were being studied by an expert panel of ICMR. He stressed that actual reinfection would mean a fully recovered person getting infected with a freshly introduced virus.
Meanwhile, the number of new coronavirus infections reported daily in India dropped below 50,000 for the first time in nearly three months, taking the COVID-19 caseload to 75,97,063 on Tuesday, according to the Union Health Ministry.
A total of 46,790 fresh infections were reported in a day, while the death toll climbed to 1,15,197 with 587 fatalities being registered in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed
(With Inputs from ANI) (Image credits: PTI)
Published 20:49 IST, October 20th 2020