28 June,2021 06:16 PM IST | Mumbai | PTI
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A paediatric sero-survey conducted before the anticipated third wave of the pandemic has revealed that 51.18% of children between 1 to 18 years in Mumbai have developed antibodies against coronavirus, the city civic body said on Monday.
A total of 2,176 blood samples were tested for this study conducted between April and June, it said. The survey conducted by the civic-run BYL Nair Hospital and Kasturba Molecular Diagnostic Laboratory (KMDL) also revealed that the proportion of the pediatric population having antibodies has increased compared to the earlier sero-survey, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said in a release.
A sero-survey involves testing of blood serum of a group of people and the findings are used to monitor trends in prevalence. As a possible third wave of Covid-19 is anticipated to affect children disproportionately, the BMC had directed to conduct the sero-survey of the pediatric population during the second wave itself.
The BMC said this was the third sero -survey conducted since the beginning of the pandemic. This survey was conducted between April 1 to June 15 in which 2,176 blood samples were collected from pathology laboratories including 1,283 samples from Aapli Chikitsa Network and the Nair Hospital of BMC, and 893 from a network of two private laboratories across 24 municipal wards.
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The key findings of this study suggest that more than 50 per cent of the children have already been exposed to SARS-COV-2. "The overall sero-positivity is 51.18 per cent including 54.36 per cent from the public sector and 47.03 per cent from the private sector," the release said, adding that sero-positivity is the highest in the age group 10-14 years at 53.43 per cent.
The sero-positivity rate in children of 1 to 4 years is 51.04 per cent, while it is 47.33 per cent in the age group of 5 to 9 years, 53.43 per cent in 10 to 14 years, and 51.39 per cent in 15 to 18 years. The overall sero-positivity rate of 1 to 18 years is 51.18 per cent, it said.
"There is a notable increase in sero-positivity in the pediatric population to SARS-CoV-2 in this study as compared to the sero survey-3 conducted in March 2021, which showed a sero-positivity of 39.4% in the age group of â¤18 years, which indicates that a significant proportion of children accessing the healthcare services were exposed to the virus during the second wave of the Covid-19," the release said.
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