Field work for the the third round of COVID-19 sero survey involving unvaccinated children aged 6-14 years is all set to begin in the first week of May. The Ethics Committee of Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI) accorded approval for the survey to be taken up across the State on Friday.
The State’s COVID-19 Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) had recommended that the third round of State-level COVID-19 sero survey should be done in April, 2022, involving 5,072 unvaccinated children. Although work was supposed to begin by now, it got delayed as identifying and procuring a right antibody testing kit took time, sources said.
State Health Commissioner Randeep D., who confirmed that the Ethics Committee had given its nod for the survey on Friday, said although the survey was slated to begin after the second week of May, he had asked the survey team to start in in the first week. “This is mainly because there are predictions of the fourth wave hitting the State by May end. It is better to complete the field work and finish collecting samples before the wave begins,” he said.
Pointing out that sample collection should be completed by mid-May, the Commissioner said. that work on analysing the data can go on parallelly even if the wave begins.
Level of exposure
The TAC had said a third sero survey is required at this juncture to assess the level of exposure to SARS-CoV-2 in children aged 6-14 years. As vaccination has begun only for those aged above 12 years, there is a need to find out how many were infected in the third wave and if they are sustaining the antibodies and further plan vaccination strategies, TAC sources said.
TAC members involved in formulating the methodology for taking up the survey said apart from a district-level surveillance covering child patients coming to hospitals, unvaccinated children will also be identified at homes. “As schools are closed now, field investigators will visit door to door to identify unvaccinated children who do not have a history of fever or any other COVID symptoms in the preceeding two weeks. The field staff will obtain parental consent and child assent and following that the child will be taken to the nearest health centre where blood sample will be drawn and throat swab will be taken,” said Shivananda, TAC member and former director of Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health.
Quality of immune response
He said a third survey in children will provide information on the quality of immune response in children, the level of antibody response and how broad the antibody response is in terms of neutralising all other variants. “It is ideal to take up the survey now as it will help assess whether the Omicron wave has contributed to sustain the immune response,” he said.
“As obtaining parental consent and child assent may not be an easy task, the plan is to involve the Indian Academy of Paediatrics for the survey,” Dr. Shivananda said
Although the TAC had in July recommended a third sero survey across the State and in all age groups to assess the extent of the pandemic exposure, it was later decided to conduct the survey only in children.
