Booster shot needed to ensure optimum immunity, says health DG

Booster shot needed to ensure optimum immunity, says health DG

Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah says a local study showed a decrease of up to 40% in immunity three to five months after the second dose.

Studies in Israel, the UK and Chile found a decrease in the level of Covid-19 neutralising antibody within six months after the second dose, says Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
KUALA LUMPUR:
The Covid-19 vaccine booster shots are needed after a certain time period to ensure the immunity for fully vaccinated individuals remains at an optimum level, health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said.

He said there have been cases of waning immunity after receiving the primary doses within a certain period of time.

“From monitoring done by the Institute for Clinical Research (ICR) in Malaysia, a decrease of 20% in immunity was found to have occurred in fully vaccinated individuals.

“As for Sinovac vaccine recipients, there was an immunity decrease of 40% just three to five months after receiving the second dose,” he said in a statement yesterday.

According to him, various studies from Israel, United Kingdom and Chile found a decrease in the level of Covid-19 neutralising antibody after three to six months of receiving the complete primary doses.

Dr Noor Hisham said as of yesterday, a total of 10,235,759 individuals or 43.7% of the country’s population aged 18 and above had received booster shots.

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