Between 4% and 20% of adults in Indore who had recovered from COVID-19 in the past four months and came forward to donate plasma had either no or a very low level of antibodies, two city hospitals have found.
At the privately owned Sri Aurobindo Institute of Medical Sciences (SAIMS), the largest COVID-19 facility, the samples of 17 of the 378 prospective donors had either no or a very low level of antibodies. Similarly, 25 of the 130 prospective donors at the government-run Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College (MGMMC) reported such low levels of antibodies, thus rendering them ineligible.
Specialists were noticing antibodies generated faster in some than others, said Vinod Bhandari, owner of SAIMS, where recovered persons came 28-42 days after having contracted the disease. “It depends on the viral load. Nearly half the asymptomatic ones reported low antibody levels.”
Ashok Yadav, head of department, Transfusion Medicine, at the MGMMC, where persons came within four months, noticed that the antibody count went down with time. “Those who have recovered from a serious condition have more of them and for a longer duration.”
Asked whether recovered individuals with no or low levels of antibodies could contract the illness again, Dr. Yadav said it was still being researched. “However, it also depends on the T or memory cells whose presence can help produce antibodies quickly in case of reinfection,” he said.
