The Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine recipients, who had already been infected with the disease, have developed antibodies four times more than the non-infected vaccine takers, says a study.
Besides, the presence of antibodies against the deadly virus has been found among vaccine receivers of all ages, the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) disclosed the research findings in a Covid-19 update on Wednesday.
The vaccination program across Bangladesh had started on February 7 by administering Covishield, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII).
Since then, IEDCR and the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), with technical assistance from USAID, conducted the research jointly on antibody development among the vaccine recipients.
IEDCR says 92% of 120 first jab takers developed antibodies after the first month of the vaccination and 97% after two months.
Moreover, there was no significant difference in the presence of antibodies among the jab takers with or without comorbidity.
The ongoing study will continue to observe the presence of antibodies in the blood of 6,300 vaccine recipients over the next two years.
Also Read - Bangladesh thanks China, seeks larger amount of Covid vaccine doses
Bangladesh received seven million of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine doses so far through its contract with SII. The Indian government also gifted Bangladesh some 3.3 million vaccine doses.
The SII was supposed to supply 30 million vaccine doses - five million doses a month - to Bangladesh by June.
Bangladesh is now facing a vaccine shortage as SII suspended further exports since February due to the record-breaking surge in Covid-19 cases and deaths in India.
Under the circumstances, health authorities in Bangladesh on April 26 were forced to suspend administering the first dose.
As SII could not provide the vaccine doses they promised, a good number of people will have to wait for their second jabs, according to Health Minister Zahid Maleque.
However, 500,000 doses of China’s Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine arrived in Dhaka on Wednesday, as a gift from Beijing.
According to the health directorate, medical college and nursing college students and medical technologists will be in the first batch of people to get this vaccine.
To tackle the shortage, Bangladesh is currently engaged with China, Russia and the US to acquire more doses of different Covid-19 vaccines.
