A recent study showed that people who were vaccinated previously infected with Omicron subvariants have four times more protection than those who did not get the infection.
The research was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
It analyzed the probability of vaccination of people infected with the subvariant BA.5 currently in circulation. Researchers in Portugal estimated the degree of protection conferred by infections with previous forms and used real-world data.
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“Vaccinated people who were infected with Omicron subvariants ba.1 and ba.2 have been protected against infection with the subvariant ba.5 in circulation since June, compared with people who were not infected at any time,” Lewis said. Four times more.” Graca, Professor at the University of Lisbon.
“Infections in 2020 and 2021 that occurred through infection with older variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus also confers protection against infection for the more recent omicron variant, although this protection is more similar to that of individuals infected with BA.1.” and BA.2 variants, by early 2022,” said study co-leader Grace.
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The researchers said these results are very important because customized vaccines that are in clinical development and evaluation are based on the BA.1 subvariant of the virus, which was a dominant variant in infection in January and February 2022.
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He said that until now, it was not known to what extent this subtype confers protection against the stress currently in circulation.
The researchers had access to Portugal’s national level of COVID-19 cases registry.
Manuel Carmo Gomes, Associate Professor at the University of Lisbon, said: “We used the Portuguese National Registry of COVID-19 Cases to obtain information on all cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection in a population over the age of 12 living in Portugal. did.” ,
“The virus variant of each infection was determined considering the date of infection and the dominant variant at that time. We considered infections caused by the first variants of Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 together,” Gomes said.
The researchers then analyzed the likelihood of a person who had already been reinfected with the current variant to become infected, which allowed them to calculate the percentage of protection provided by previous infections.
The study shows that previous infection in vaccinated people continues to provide for variants that are known for their ability to evade immune responses, such as the subvariant currently dominant, he said.
(with inputs from PTI)
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