Coronavirus: Srinagar’s GMC to test for immunity passport in Kashmir
Samaan Lateef
Tribune News Service
Srinagar June 13
In a first, Government Medical College (GMC) Srinagar will test immunity for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, among healthcare workers and persons who have recovered from the disease.
Experts at the GMC Srinagar have started conducting seroprevalence study among healthcare workers for coronavirus infection while testing immunoglobulin-G (IgG) levels in their blood.
Around 3,000 healthcare providers attending patients in Srinagar hospitals and healthcare centres would be tested for IgG levels, which would reveal whether they have been infected in recent past with SARS CoV-2. The immunity test will also check the degree of protection they have achieved after being infected with the coronavirus.
“We shall be testing doctors, nursing paramedic, support staff of various six associated hospitals of GMC Srinagar, and other hospitals and healthcare centres in Srinagar,” said Dr Muhammad Salim Khan, a spokesperson of GMC Srinagar.
Several countries have suggested detection of antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 could serve as the basis for an “immunity passport” or “risk-free certificate” that would enable individuals to travel or to return to work assuming that they are protected against re-infection.
However, WHO has cautioned that there is currently no evidence that people who have recovered from COVID-19 and have antibodies are protected from a second infection.
“Most of these studies show that people who have recovered from infection have antibodies to the virus. However, some of these people have very low levels of neutralising antibodies in their blood, suggesting that cellular immunity may also be critical for recovery. As of 24 April 2020, no study has evaluated whether the presence of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 confers immunity to subsequent infection by this virus in humans,” reads The Who guidelines on immunity passports.
The study is being guided by Principal GMC Srinagar Dr. Samia Rashid and approved by institute’s ethics committee.
Srinagar Deputy Commissioner Shahid Iqbal Choudhary also permitted it as it shall help the administration to take necessary measures based on its results.
Recently, Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) conducted nationwide study over 83 districts and hotspots, covering 26400 population and found an overall 0.73 per cent prevalence of IgG positively while in Pulwama district, which was facilitated by Department of Community Medicine, GMC Srinagar for ICMR, showed a prevalence of 2 per cent.
Pulwama was considered a low prevalence district by ICMR while selecting it for the study.
The GMC study was part of bigger study which includes seroprevalence of SARS CoV-2 infection among general population of Srinagar district which shall commence shortly, Khan said.
Another study on estimation of IgG levels in recovered CoVID-19 patients has already kick started today, Khan said.
“We are collecting blood samples from many persons who recovered and were discharged from Chest Disease hospital Srinagar few weeks back after recovering from SARS CoV-2 infection,” he said.
A senior physician at GMC Srinagar said, “Issue of immunity is still debatable as the disease is only six months old. Nobody knows how long the immunity will last and there is still not enough evidence generated for or against immune responses”.
“What gives us hope is that to date reinfection reports are only in form of doubtful case reports and antibody testing have qualitatively and quantitatively found some immune response in most of people. All over the world, Scientists are struggling to find highly sensitive and specific antibody tests,” he said.
