A team of local experts are conducting studies to find out whether Kenyans who have received the two doses of Astrazeneca vaccine will require a third booster dose. A recent study by Oxford University had found that a third dose given more than six months after the second dose leads to a substantial increase in antibodies and induces a strong boost to immune response against SARS-CoV-2, including variants. But the experts led by Anzala argue that the decision on whether there will be need for a booster dose will be based on evidence from locally generated data. The issue is that once you have been given a vaccine, with time the immune response goes down, we will study how far down it goes because we have a threshold within which you are protected,” the medic said. As at Saturday, 452,718 people had received their second dose in the country while 1,016,190 had received one dose.

Source: The Star July 04, 2021 19:52 UTC