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delta variant: Pfizer, AstraZeneca vaccines protect against Delta variant: Lancet study

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LONDON: The Delta variant of coronavirus, first identified in India, doubles the risk of hospitalisation compared with the Alpha variant first found in the UK, but Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines provide good protection against the strain, says a study published in The Lancet journal.
Researchers at Public Health Scotland and the University of Edinburgh, UK, found that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine offered better protection against the Delta variant compared to the Oxford-AstraZeneca preventive, known as Covishield in India.
The analysis covered the period from April 1 to June 6, 2021, for the demographic distribution of cases.
The team analysed 19,543 confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections over the period of interest, of whom 377 were admitted to hospital for Covid-19 in Scotland.
Around 7,723 community cases and 134 hospitalisations were found to have the Delta variant of coronavirus.
The study found that the Pfizer vaccine offered 92 per cent protection against the Alpha variant and 79 per cent against the Delta strain two weeks after the second dose.
For AstraZeneca’s vaccine, there was 60 per cent protection against Delta compared with 73 per cent for Alpha variant, the researchers said.
They also found that two doses of vaccine provide much better protection against the Delta variant compared to a single dose.
“Risk of Covid-19 hospital admission was approximately doubled in those with the Delta variant of concern (VOC) when compared to the Alpha VOC, with risk of admission particularly increased in those with five or more relevant comorbidities,” the authors of the study noted.
“Both the Oxford–AstraZeneca and Pfizer–BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines were effective in reducing the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and Covid-19 hospitalisation in people with the Delta VOC,” they said.
However, the researchers noted that these effects on infection with Delta variant appeared to be diminished when compared to those with the Alpha VOC.
The authors of the study warned that the vaccine comparison should be interpreted with caution due to differences in the groups which received each type of vaccine, and also in how quickly immunity is developed with each shot.





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Young Covid survivors not safe from reinfection: Lancet

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NEW YORK: If you are planning to avoid vaccination just because you are a Covid survivor, think twice. According to a new study, despite a prior Covid-19 infection young people can likely catch the virus again and may still transmit it to others.
Even after a previous infection and the presence of antibodies, vaccination is still necessary to boost immune responses, prevent reinfection, reduce transmission, and that young person should take up the vaccine wherever possible, asserts the study published in the journal The Lancet Respiratory Medicine.
“Immunity is not guaranteed by past infection, and vaccinations that provide additional protection are still needed for those who have had Covid-19,” said Professor Stuart Sealfon, from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the US.
In the study, the team involved 2,346 young and fit Marines from the US Marine Corps – 189 were seropositive (they had previously been infected with SARS-CoV-2 and had antibodies) and 2,247 were seronegative at the start of the study.
Across both groups of recruits, there were 1,098 (45 percent) new infections between May and November 2020. Among the seropositive participants, 19 (10 percent) tested positive for a second infection during the study. Of the recruits who were seronegative, 1,079 (48 percent) became infected during the study.
Further, they found that, among the seropositive group, participants who became reinfected had lower antibody levels against the SARS-CoV-2 virus than those who did not become reinfected. The neutralizing antibodies were also less common – in 45 (83 percent) of 54 uninfected, and in six (32 percent) of 19 reinfected participants.
In addition, they found the viral load (the amount of measurable SARS-CoV-2 virus) in reinfected seropositive recruits was on average only 10 times lower than in infected seronegative participants, which could mean that some reinfected individuals could still have a capacity to transmit infection. However, this needs further investigation, the team said.

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Non-invasive skin swab tests can quickly detect Covid-19: Lancet study

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LONDON: Non-invasive skin swab samples may be enough to detect the novel coronavirus quickly, according to a study published in the Lancet E Clinical Medicine journal.
Researchers at the University of Surrey in the UK noted that Covid-19 pandemic has led to an unprecedented demand for testing — for diagnosis and prognosis — as well as for investigation into the impact of the disease on the host metabolism.
Sampling sebum — an oily, waxy substance produced by the body’s sebaceous glands — has the potential to support both needs by looking at what the virus does to us, rather than looking for the virus itself, they said.
The most widely used approach to testing for Covid-19 requires a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, which involves taking a swab of the back of the throat and far inside the nose.
The researchers collected sebum samples from 67 hospitalised patients — 30 who had tested positive for Covid-19 and 37 who had tested negative.
The samples were collected by gently swabbing a skin area rich in sebum such as the face, neck or back.
The team analysed the samples by using liquid chromatography mass spectrometry and a statistical modelling technique to differentiate between the Covid-19 positive and negative samples.
The researchers, including those from the Universities of Manchester and Leicester, found that patients with a positive Covid-19 test had lower lipid levels — or dyslipidemia — than their counterparts with a negative test.
They noted that the accuracy of the findings increased further when medication and additional health conditions were controlled.
“Our study suggests that we may be able to use non-invasive means to test for diseases such as Covid-19 in the future — a development which I am sure will be welcomed by all,” said Melanie Bailey, co-author of the study from the University of Surrey.
Matt Spick, co-author of the study from the University of Surrey noted that Covid-19 damages many areas of metabolism.
“In this work, we show that the skin lipidome can be added to the list, which could have implications for the skin’s barrier function, as well as being a detectable symptom of the disease itself,” Spick said.
Investigating new methods of diagnosis and surveillance in a new disease such as Covid-19 that has had such a devastating effect on the world is vital, according to George Evetts, Consultant in Anaesthesia & Intensive Care Medicine at Frimley Park Hospital.
“Sebum sampling is a simple, non-invasive method that shows promise for both diagnostics and monitoring of the disease in both a healthcare and a non-healthcare setting,” Evetts added.



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