WHO Explains Why Some Vaccinated People Still Get Severe COVID-19

A situation whereby fully vaccinated people contract COVID-19 also known as “vaccine breakthrough cases,” is largely determined by one’s immunity response vaccines as people respond differently to vaccine immunity, a top World Health Organisation (WHO) official has said.

By Patricia Mashiri

The world over, though in smaller numbers, some fully vaccinated people have been developing severe COVID-19 symptoms, hospitalizations and at times deaths, a development which has left many perplexed.

Speaking during an HIV and COVID-19 Science Café, Dr Gasasira said with all COVID-19 vaccines available not all people have 100% immune response to them and some vaccines’ immunity wane faster that others hence the need for booster doses in some instances.

There are several factors which can cause people not to receive full protection from the COVID-19 vaccines. These factors include concurrent illnesses which may divert the vaccines which would have been administered in someone’s body and this may cause severe illness or at times death.

“Sometimes the technique in which vaccines may have been administered may be a cause of concern and there is need for training on vaccine administering. And lastly it depends on when one gets his/her shots of vaccines because other vaccine’s immunity declines over time,”said Dr Gasasira.

Even though data is still sketchy as to how many fully vaccinated people in Zimbabwe have tested positive or died from COVID-19, in the United States, by July 2021 at least 125,000 fully vaccinated Americans had tested positive for Covid and 1,400 of those had died, according to data collected by NBC News.

Dr Gasasira however said COVID-19 was  still new to everyone and scientists the world over are learning  as they go.

“We need to be mindful about this new variant. All measures we have been applying through other variants still work on this one. The symptoms are still the same. I encourage everyone to be vigilant and remain on testing. I advise that media personnel should do their part in advocating for vaccines to reach the elderly and those with chronic conditions such as HIV. Several studies show that People living with HIV especially those with low CD4 count are at more risk of COVID-19 and should get vaccinated.”

The Omicron variant is one of the variant of concern that has been detected following the Delta variant which was also highly infectious.

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