27% of Pulwama’s population has antibodies for coronavirus

27% of Pulwama’s population has antibodies for coronavirus

Srinagar: More than 27% of the population in Pulwama district has developed antibodies to fight the novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19, but this is no reason to give up the precautions against the virus, say the experts who conducted the survey.
The sero-survey in Pulwama district was conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the central medical research organisation in India, as part of its pan-India mapping of the population’s response to the SARS COV-2 infection over the months. The blood samples were sent to the ICMR lab at Chennai. A team of the GMC Srinagar faculty, resident doctors and medical interns from the Department of Community Medicine (SPM), conducted the survey.
The first round was held in May and June this year where the prevalence of IgG antibody was found to be just 0.73 percent among the general population in the country. During the survey, blood samples were collected to determine the prevalence of infection in the recent past and the body’s immune response to the SARS CoV-2 infection.
“In the first round, the sero-prevalence in district Pulwama was found to be just 2% in June earlier this year,” Dr Salim Khan, Head of Community Medicine, Government Medical College (GMC), Srinagar, and the nodal person for the ICMR’s survey told Kashmir Reader.
“In the second survey in September, in Pulwama district 413 blood samples were collected in ten different clusters and 113 reported to be positive for IgG antibodies against SARS CoV-2 Infection, which makes it 27.3% prevalence, with Sona Samilo village cluster showing highest 52.5% positive prevalence,” Dr Khan said.
This means that in a period of three months, the percentage of people who had developed antibodies went up from 2% to 27 %.
Since March, Pulwama district has recorded about 5.6% of the total 3,996 deaths of Covid-19 infected persons in Jammu and Kashmir. Among the 77,253 total cases detected so far in JK, about 5% come from Pulwama district.
The ICMR conducted the study through its regional centres. However, it asked the Government Medical College (GMC), Srinagar, to conduct the study in Pulwama district on its behalf.

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