Varanasi, January 23: The whole world including India is reeling under the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Ensuring protection from epidemics by vaccinating the people most at risk of infection and the entire population remains a major challenge for governments around the world. This pandemic caused by virus has changed our lives. The only way to get life back on track is through widespread vaccination. Vaccination will generate a normal immunity in people to serious and complex disease and even if one does get the infection, the infected person will have fewer side effects.
These findings have also come from a Study in the Department of Radiodiagnosis (X-ray Department) located at the Institute of Medical Sciences (IMS) of Banaras Hindu University. Physician in the Department of Radiodiagnosis (X-Ray Department) – Prof. Under the leadership of Ashish Verma and Dr Ishan Kumar, a team of Prof Ramchandra Shukla, Dr Pramod Kumar Singh and Dr Ritu Ojha has provided documentary evidence to confirm the above hypothesis by conducting a first of its kind study in the country.
This group of physicians compiled their study into an original research paper published in the journal “European Radiology.” This paper has a high impact factor of 5.3.
The investigators analyzed high-resolution computed tomography scans of individuals infected with (SARS-CoV-2) showing symptoms and divided them into three groups, i.e. 1. Those who were not vaccinated 2. Those received partial vaccination and 3. Those people who had received complete vaccination as per protocol.
During this the provisional CT severity score was analyzed. The following key points emerged in the study –
—Patients who received two full doses of vaccination had significantly lower mean CT scan scores than partially vaccinated patients and non-vaccinated patients. That is, the symptoms of the disease appeared in the lungs of the people who were fully vaccinated.
—fully vaccinated patients of younger age (less than 60 years) had significantly lower mean CT scores, whereas patients older than 60 years did not show significantly different CT scores between the vaccinated and non-vaccinated groups.
Although this is a preliminary observational compilation with a sample size based only on patients reporting to a Level 3 COVID-care centre, it provides important information about vaccine efficacy and immunization schedules in India.
This work includes information collected from real patients during their routine treatment.
During these studies no outside intervention was done on the individuals nor were their bloods etc. sampled. The group also took utmost care that patient ethics and confidentiality were not violated. This study was also approved by the ethics committee of this institute.
