Pune: The statement of Dr. Randeep Guleria, Director of AIIMS, Delhi, amidst the fear and apprehension about the ability of the new variant of Corona to beat the existing vaccine, Omicron is going to give some relief.
Dr. Guleria says that by making minor modifications to the existing vaccine, it can be made effective against the new variant.
Speaking at an event here, he said that the next few weeks are very important as far as the seriousness of Omicron is concerned. Only new data will be able to know how serious the infection spreads.
AIIMS Director Dr. VS Prayag was addressing the Memorial Oration 2021, which was organized by the Association of Physicians of India.
Dr. Guleria said that the production of a new influenza vaccine every year shows that only the existing vaccine can be updated to keep up with the changes in viral. He said that scientists are working on developing the Vivalent Corona Vaccine.
A bivalent vaccine is one that provides immunity against different antigens. Giving an example of this, he said, ‘Suppose the delta variant and the vita variant are combined into a vaccine which makes a bivalent vaccine.’
Higher risk of re-infection
Dr. Guleria said that preliminary data from South Africa suggests that people who have been previously infected with another variant are at higher risk of being infected with Omicron.
However, more data is still needed to confirm this. Similarly, we will have to wait for more data to know about serious infections from Omicron.
We have to be ready for more new variants
The Director of AIIMS said that new variants of Corona will keep coming and we have to be ready to deal with them. The new variants will also be spreading rapidly. In such a situation, if we leave proper preventive practices against corona, then it will spread more rapidly.
Genome sequencing becomes more important
He said that the importance of genome sequencing has increased in view of the new variants emerging. Given the changing circumstances, there is a need to do genome sequencing on a large scale.