Experts Committee in No Hurry to Decide on Booster Dose, Immunisation for Children
NEW DELHI, Dec 7: The National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) is in no hurry to take a decision on the booster or additional doses of vaccine for any section of the population in the country.
The NTAGI which met earlier this week stood by the stand of the union health ministry that a final decision on booster dose can wait. It also did not take any decision on immunization of children and preferred to wait for more information and evidence before taking the crucial decision.
While there is a large pool of unvaccinated children between 2 and 18 years, numbering around 44 crore, “we can’t hurry with these decisions,” said a member, who confirmed that the matter of additional COVID dose for immunocompromised individuals and inoculation of children were deliberated upon in a meeting of NTAGI.
An additional dose of a vaccine is different from a booster dose. While a booster dose is given to an individual after a predefined period when the immune response due to primary vaccination is presumed to have declined, additional shot is given to immunocompromised and immunosuppressed individuals when the primary schedule of inoculation does not provide adequate protection from the disease, explained an official.
Cancer patients on therapy, transplant patients and AIDS patients are among those who come under the immunocompromised and immunosuppressed categories and need additional doses of vaccine to improve their protection.
Earlier in its bulletin on November 29, the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium. (INSACOG) recommended a booster dose of COVID-19 vaccines for those above 40 years with preference to high-risk and high-exposure populations. On Saturday, however, it said their recommendation was not for the national immunization programme as many more scientific experiments are required to assess its impact.
The Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya had told the Lok Sabha earlier this week that the NTAGI and the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC) are deliberating and considering scientific evidence related to it.
(Manas Dasgupta)
