The Covidshield jab is working well against the pandemic Covid-19 in Bangladesh.
A study conducted among the doctors and staff of Dhaka Medical College and Hospital after giving them two doses of the jab found that 93 percent of them developed antibodies within two weeks.
Bangladesh started the countrywide vaccination in February with the Covidshield which is the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab made in the Serum Institute of India.
The study, findings of which were released on Sunday, was carried out on 308 people by the Department of Microbiology of the Dhaka Medical College.
Prof Md Titu Mia, principal of Dhaka Medical College, also a member of the Covid-19 clinical management board, said with this sample size, “we can get an idea about the antibody response of the vaccine.”
Being vaccinated, he said, people can still have the disease Covid-19. “But that will not be so severe. In most cases, mild symptoms may appear,” he assured people about the vaccine efficacy.
Prof SM Shamsuzzaman, head of the microbiology department, led the five-month long research among the teachers, doctors and staff of the hospital who received both the doses.
The antibodies were found in 41 percent of the participants four weeks after the first dose of the vaccine.
But it rose to 93 percent two weeks after getting the second dose, he said, adding that participants in the study were above 30 years old.
However, the vaccine makers still could not give any information about the specific time of how long the antibodies will last.
Prof Shamsuzzaman said more research would be needed to say that.
Bangladesh bought 7 million doses of Covishield from the Serum. The Indian government also gifted 3.3 million doses.
