PEOPLE INFECTED with Covid-19 earlier have 88 per cent lower chance of hospitalisation or mortality during reinfection in the first 10 months in comparison to the uninfected, according to a new study.
тАЬProtection remained universally high with 90 per cent for Covid-19 ancestral, Alpha, Beta and Delta and 88 per cent for Omicron BA.1,тАЭ The Lancet said.
For the study published by The Lancet Thursday, as many as 65 studies conducted in 19 countries, including India, studied the role of past infection on a Covid-19 patient. The results were analysed to find a common outcome. The review showed that protection from past infection was lower for Omicron BA.1 against other variants.
According to the study, the protection against reinfection from a pre-Omicron variant was about 85 per cent at one month тАФ and 79 per cent at 10 months. However, the protection from a pre-Omicron variant against reinfection from the Omicron BA.1 variant was 74 per cent at one month and 36 per cent at around 10 months. Yet the researchers, caution that their findings should not discourage vaccination as according to them it is the safest way to acquire immunity.
тАЬVaccination is the safest way to acquire immunity, whereas acquiring natural immunity must be weighed against the risks of severe illness and death associated with the initial infection,тАЭ says lead author, Dr Stephen Lim of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) in the US.
However, Dr Sanjay Pujari of ICMR and noted virologist Dr Gagandeep Kang flagged that populations across the world may have hybrid immunity which has not been considered in the study.
