HYDERABAD: Permission for community-based serosurvey of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, has been given to ICMR -National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) for Telangana state. The serosurvey will give an indication of antibodies in the community. These will be randomly taken up in people to understand the prevalence of antibodies against the virus.
It will indicate the number of people who have developed antibodies after the first and second dose of the vaccine.
A total of 1,53,74,395 vaccines have been administered in the state of them. Of them, 1,24,49,486 have taken the first dose and 29,24,909 the second dose.
Dr Rajan Shukla, associate professor of Indian Institute of Public Health, says, "This is a good move by the government as it will give a clear picture about the number of people having antibodies against the disease. The serosurvey helps to understand the way the virus has infected and measures to be taken to curtail them."
A July 23 serosurvey report on Jangaon, Nalgonda and Kamareddy districts showed that 60.1 per cent people had antibodies. It was the fourth round of serosurvey in the state. Around 55 per cent children and 61 per cent adolescents developed antibodies.
The ICMR-NIN survey found that those who received both doses of vaccine had 94 per cent antibodies and those with one dose of vaccination had 78.5 per cent. Those who did not take the vaccine had a low of 51.3 per cent.
The national serosurvey prevalence in the country is 67.6 per cent. Healthcare personnel were found to have 85.2 per cent antibodies.
The first round of sero-survey was conducted in three districts in May 2020 with 0.33 per cent sero-positivity and the second and third rounds were carried out in August and December 2020 with 12.5 per cent and 24.1 per cent sero-positivity.
In Telangana the sero-positivity has gone up from 24.1 per cent last December to 60.1 per cent this June.
