In the past month, many healthcare workers, especially doctors, have been testing positive for COVID-19; they say waning immunity could be a reason for them getting the infection
Health workers get the vaccine at a BMC health post at Mahim in June. File pic
As the decision on whether booster vaccinations against Covid-19 should be given and to whom is yet to be taken, health workers are increasingly testing positive for the infection. They include many doctors who are in the high-risk category.
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‘A rising trend’
“I got a fever earlier this month. When tested, I was found positive,” said Dr Prakash Jiandani, critical care medicine specialist at Lilavati Hospital. While he got the monoclonal cocktail drug and recovered within two days, doctors treating Covid-19 said, in the past one month, there is a rising trend of many healthcare workers, especially doctors, testing positive for the virus.
Dr Jiandani said waning immunity can be one of the reasons why more doctors are getting the infection now, and advocated a booster dose. “In my opinion, doctors/healthcare workers should get the booster dose,” he said. Dr Ajit Vaze, urologist, who also got the infection earlier this month, agrees with Dr Jiandani. “We fall in the high-risk category. We 101 per cent need booster shots,” he said. While health workers are increasingly testing positive for the infection, doctors said not many have required hospitalisation and some were given the monoclonal cocktail drug.
Dr Rahul Pandit, director, Critical Care, Fortis Hospital, agreed that in the last month a rising number of doctors have got the infection. He said while breakthrough infections are normal, more doctors are getting it as they fall in the high-risk category, and that they are seeing more healthcare workers as patients than ever. Dr Pandit, who is also a member of the Supreme Court-appointed National Covid-19 Task Force, said, “We definitely need a booster dose but are awaiting data on when should it be given. The data should be out in a month’s time. Till then wearing a mask, following Covid-appropriate behaviour are the best booster vaccinations.”
Dr Vasant Nagvekar, an infectious diseases expert at Global and Lilavati hospitals, cited laxity as one of the reasons why many healthcare workers might be getting the infection. He also added that waning antibodies can be a reason. “Healthcare workers got their jabs at the start of this year. There are chances of waning antibodies which need to be checked,” he said. He added that most health workers who are now testing positive are also those who didn’t get the infection before. “I have hardly seen reinfection cases, and most of these patients do not require hospitalisation. They are given the monoclonal antibody cocktail on day care basis and asked to quarantine themselves at home,” said Dr Nagvekar.
‘Be cautious about AY.4.2’
Along with the booster dose, debates are also on about how the new AY.4.2 sub-variant will impact the city. Dr Pandit said it is a wait-and-watch situation and there is nothing to panic as of now. “All we know about AY.4.2 is that it is little more infectious than the delta variants. We still do not know how virulent this new sub-variant is,” he said.
Dr Om Shrivastav, an infectious disease expert and a member of the state Covid task force, said there is a need for each one of us to be extra careful with few parts of the country reporting the new AY.4.2 sub-variant. “We should recognise the fact that there are multiple variants that have been described globally. Whether or not we have evidence of them being in our country, we must be cautious about the transmissibility and make sure we take precautions sooner than later,” he said.
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