New Delhi: On the vaccination front, homegrown Covaxin has exhibited a "very good immune response" in children in trials, chairman of India's Covid-19 Working Group of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) Dr NK Arora said on Sunday.
The government has announced rolling out vaccination for beneficiaries between 15-18 years of age from January 3. In an interview with ANI, Arora listed the possible benefits of this decision.
Benefits Of Immunisation Of Adolescents
Explaining the benefits of PM Modi’s decision on vaccination, Arora said, "Children between the age of 12 and 18 years, particularly those in the age group of 15 to 18 years, are very much like adults. Our research within the country also says that almost two-thirds of the deaths which occurred due to Covid in India are within this age group. So, this decision was mainly taken to protect the adolescents."
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Stating two major advantages of immunizing adolescents, Arora said firstly they are quite mobile, and since they need to go to the school colleges and their risk of getting an infection, particularly in the light of Omicron is present.
"Secondly, many times these adolescents get infection into their households where elderly and those with comorbidities can get infected. So, in view of all this, the country has decided to introduce vaccination for children between 15 to 18 years," he said.
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Response Of Covaxin Trials
On Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) approval to Emergency Use Authorization for Bharat Biotech's Covaxin for beneficiaries between 15-18 years of age, Arora revealed that during trials vaccine has shown good immune response.
"The point is that we have a vaccine, which is approved for children. Covaxin has shown that it has a very good immune response in children in trials. In fact, it is slightly better than adults. Secondly, this vaccine is a safe vaccine, and even local effects like pain, swelling in the arms are much less as compared to adults. We would like to offer this protection to our adolescents," he said.
The doctor said, "Although the disease's effects are much milder, as we know many schools have opened. A lot of parents are still not very confident in sending their children to schools. So this vaccination drive will also be giving confidence to them. I would say it's a great New Year gift for our adolescents."
In children, an immunogenicity study, not an efficacy study is present at the moment.
Sharing the details on the efficacy of Covaxin for children, he said, "So, in children, we have an immunogenicity study, not an efficacy study. So immunogenicity means what level of antibodies are produced, and we know that there is a reasonably good relationship between antibody levels and protection.”
He went on to explain that adolescents produce better levels of antibodies as compared to their adults.
“Here, I would also like to say that the same Covaxin dose is given to children as an adult and the interpretation between the doses is also four weeks. So as far as implementation of the programme is concerned, there is no special effort required. And immunization of these adolescents can be started within a short period without much or a specific preparation."