A day after launching a study on the Covid-19 situation in Dhaka which found antibodies in a large percentage of the respondents, the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) has claimed that their findings did not highlight the entire mega city.
According to the study revealed in a Dhaka hotel on Monday, 45% of Dhaka residents have developed antibodies for Covid-19, meaning they have already been exposed to the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2.
Issuing a press statement late on Tuesday night, the IEDCR said the media coverage in this regard created confusion among the masses.
Some media reports also caused the scientific base of the study to appear weak, read the statement issued by Dr Tahmina Shirin, director of IEDCR.
“It will not be wiser to consider that the small number of results from the samples tested represent the entire capital city,” it added.
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In order to get the full picture of the city, it is mandatory to have a wider research with adequate samples to reflect the entire population, it mentioned.
What the study said
The study along with another one was unveiled in a seminar jointly organized by the IEDCR, and the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b). The studies were funded by USAID and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
In his presentation, Mahbubur Rahman, assistant professor of epidemiology at IEDCR, said serology tests have shown that some form of Covid-19 antibodies are present in 45% of the respondents to the study in Dhaka. Of them, the highest proportion were over the age of 60.
He added that the respondents were divided into two broad categories – residents of Dhaka city, and residents of Dhaka slums.
Some 928 persons, including 400 from symptomatic households and 528 from asymptomatic households, were tested thrice over the 28-day research period.
He said: “9.8% people tested Covid-19 positive, with almost no difference between the genders (males 9%, females 10%)”.
At least 6% of the cases were symptomatic and 94% were found to be asymptomatic, he added.
Of the asymptomatic cases, 12% of the respondents have developed symptoms recently, taking the number of symptomatic cases to 18%.