mumbai covid19 antibodies may not last more than a couple of months according to a study carried out on affected healthcare staff of jj group of hospitalsour study of 801 healthcare staff from jj gt and st georges hospitals included 28 who had tested positive for covid on rtpcr seven weeks prior in late aprilearly may said the studys main author dr nishant kumarread alsocoronavirus highest 764k cases on thursday 1081 deathsindias covid19 pandemic continued to escalate with a record 76489 fresh cases being reported on thursday and the daily count staying above the 76000 mark for the second straight day deaths from the virus climbed to 1081 the secondhighest daily toll recorded so farnone of the 28 showed any antibodies in a sero survey done in june according to the preprint of the study that will appear in the september issue of the international journal of community medicine and public healthfollow tois live blog for latest updates on coronavirusthe jj hospital sero survey had 34 others who tested pcr positive for covid three weeks and five weeks prior respectively while 90 of those in the threeweek group had antibodies less than half 385 in the fiveweek group had antibodies said dr kumar covid antibodies are being widely discussed at the moment because of the newly flagged off vaccine trials in india and the first documented case of covid reinfection in hong kong antibodies can guard patients against repeat infections and those vaccinated against first infectionsin june dr kumars notforprofit eyebetes foundation along with staterun jj hospital in byculla carried out an antibody survey among the latters staff the survey showed that one in 10 staffers was seropositive or had had previous exposure to the virusa further analysis of the same surveys results showed that antibodies decayed quickly a few previous studies done globally had shown a peak antibody formation after three weeks as well as an early antibody decay these results underline the need to rework vaccine strategies said dr kumar the research team said instead of a single dose people could need multiple vaccine doseshowever some public health experts were skeptical with the early decay hypothesis we dont know if the 28 patients in the jj study had suffered asymptomatic form of covid or if they had symptoms said epidemiologist giridhar r babu from the public health foundation of indiastudies in the west have shown aysmptomatic patients dont have the same level of antibodies as patients who have had a prolonged or severe covid infectionpatients who had longer symptomatic disease have antibodies for at least three to four months added dr babua senior doctor from mumbai said a lot of research is still being done on the mechanism of immunity in covid infections there is emerging evidence that it is not igg immunoglobulin g is the most common type of antibody but t cells or neutralising antibodies that may help build immunity against covid he said the decay in igg levels he added isnt too worrisome thena bmc