MAMC: Routine childhood vaccination decreases risk of COVID symptoms, says study

New Delhi: The Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC) conducted a study earlier in 2021 on Covid-positive children which revealed that children under 15 who have received their routine childhood vaccinations have a lower risk of getting severe Covid-19 symptoms.

The MAMC's community medicine department researchers found while observing the 141 Covid-positive children who were part of the study, that 88 had mild symptoms, 9 had moderate symptoms and three had severe symptoms and the rest were asymptomatic.

During the study, researchers have found that few doses of routine vaccines have relevantly less severe symptoms on children when infected with COVID-19. The routine vaccines are-

• One dose of Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG), to prevent tuberculosis
• Three doses of oral polio vaccine
• Three doses of rotavirus
• Three doses of Penta
• Two doses of fractional injectable polio vaccine; and
• One dose of measles-rubella (MR) vaccine

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Later, it was shown that out of that 141 children, 114 were fully immunized, 24 were partially immunized and three had not received any vaccines.

The study stated that "Symptomatic infection was more in the case of partially immunized children as compared to the fully immunized children (75% vs 69.7%). In partially immunized children, combined moderate and severe disease was more (16.7%) as compared to fully immunized children (7.0%)."

As per a media report in HT, it was also noted in the study that children who received the MR vaccine were particularly unlikely to suffer a severe Covid infection.

"This might be due to the cross-reactivity of measles or rubella components of the vaccine with the Sars-CoV-2 virus and the development of neutralizing antibodies towards the virus. MMR vaccine may provide strong protection from COVID19 spread and mortality," the study added.

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The study was conducted primarily to determine if cross-immunity plays any role for children who have not yet been covered by the country's Coronavirus immunization campaign, said Dr. Panna Lal from the MAMC community medicine department. At this time, only those aged 15 and older are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine.

"The study was primarily focused in the central district of Delhi and the primary takeaway was that children below the age of 15, who were yet to receive their Covid-19 vaccines but had received their routine vaccines as toddlers, still had lower chances of getting severe symptoms," Dr. Lal added.