Recurrence of COVID in March could be due to lack of antibodies in seropositive people: CSIR survey

The recurrence of coronavirus outbreak in March could have been due to lack of meaningful antibodies in seropositive people after a peak in September last year suggests a survey by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research CSIRThe CSIR conducted a serosurvey on 10427 people comprising the staff members of its 40 laboratories including contractual employees and their family members from 17 states and two union territoriesIn 10427 people the average sero positivity was 1014 per centThe survey suggested that the neutralising antibodies declined significantly after fivesix months making people prone to reinfectionsThe coronavirus cases in the country peaked in September 2020 and there was a nationwide decline of new cases starting in October said Shantanu Sengupta one of the lead authors of the paperOur data shows that while antiNC nucleocapsid antibodies provide longlasting evidence of viral exposure or infection about 20 per cent of seropositive individuals lack meaningful neutralisation activity after 56 monthsUsing more stringent measures more than 30 per cent inhibition of surrogate receptorspike protein binding the loss of neutralisation may be even higher We speculate that this may be related to recurrence of outbreaks in March 2021 after the peak in September 2020 the paper saidIndia is currently witnessing a massive surge in infections with logging a daily case count of over 300000 on four consecutive daysAccording to the paper the aggregate seropositivity of 1014 per cent in its multicentre study suggests India had a large pool of recovered immune subjects by September 2020 especially amongst its high contact workers and people using public transport leading to a decline in new infectionsHowever the duration of such immunity may not be sufficient to prevent future outbreaks even in highly affected regionsrdquo the paper saidStates like Maharashtra have witnessed an explosion of cases since MarchThe present study which recruited subjects from 24 cities in India provides an important and timely snapshot of the spread of SARS CoV2 pandemic across India shortly before the peak of new cases It confirms that by September 2020 a large pool of recovered Indians with at least partial immunity existediquest the paper saidBetween its study and the other national serosurvey at the same time more than a hundred million Indians were likely to belong to this category it estimatedThe study said the fraction of such recovered people was more than double amongst those performing highcontact jobs and using public transportThus in combination with a strong emphasis on masking and distancing new cases started declining soon after this serosurvey which started in JuneThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever