[ad_1]
South Africa may have developed a form of herd immunity to Covid-19, the country’s scientists have speculated, after authorities reported an unexpected drop in cases after the first spike.
At the height of the pandemic, South Africa was ranked as the fifth most affected country in the world, but it appears to have prevented a second wave of infections as is currently being seen in Europe and elsewhere.
Following these findings, Shabir Mahdi, a professor of vaccination at the University of the Witwatersrand, said he believed that the coronavirus had generated some degree of immunity in approximately 12 to 15 million people in South Africa.
“What has happened today in SA, the only way to explain it, the only plausible way to explain it is that some kind of herd immunity has been achieved when combined with the use of non-pharmaceutical interventions … such as the use of masks, physical distancing, ensuring indoor ventilation, etc. ”, said Professor Mahdi Sky News.
After the passage of the first peak, Cape Town-based researchers began testing for traces of the virus in blood samples provided at local clinics by pregnant women and HIV patients.
The results showed that, on average, 37 percent of pregnant women and 42 percent of people living with HIV tested positive for Covid-19 antibodies.
Although clinical studies are ongoing, it is not certain how much protection the antibodies offer or for how long.
A similar study in the Gauteng province, which is dominated by the urban areas of Johannesburg and Pretoria, revealed that about a third of those tested had been infected with Covid-19.
Dr Marvin Hsiao, Senior Lecturer and Consultant Virologist at the University of Cape Town, said these findings explain the sudden drop in cases after the first peak.
“Inexplicably, the numbers (of those infected with Covid-19) started to decline in late July, and at that time I couldn’t explain why,” he said.
“But when we looked at the data, it became clear that this immunity within the population level (related to) the large increase in infections is probably the main reason we have seen the number of infected declines.”
Researchers believe that South Africa’s strict lockdown, which was implemented in March, forced people to live indoors within the densely populated settlements surrounding the country’s major cities, and residents are also expected to queue for it. essential such as food and social security payments during this period.
This created “new networks for the spread of the disease,” Dr. Hsiao said, and helped inadvertently fuel a huge wave of infections.
Dr Mahdi says that the failure of the lockdown to suppress Covid-19 means that a higher level of immunization has likely accumulated among many South Africans, however long-lasting.
“This insufficiency in terms of enforcement of the blockade, where we have inadvertently had transmission, has resulted in a high percentage in densely populated areas becoming immune,” he said.
“There could be a question in terms of the duration of immunity … based on our experience with other coronaviruses, a mild infection will probably (generate immunity) for two or three years, but that puts us in a really good position.”
He added: “There is no denying that Covid is the leading cause of death this year, replacing HIV, tuberculosis and everything else, but the answer must be much more nuanced than simply believing that a highly restrictive lockdown is going to end it. virus.”
