Bmj British Medical Journal
Editor's Choice
Covid-19: The fatal attraction of herd immunity
BMJ 2020; 370 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3714 (Published 24 September 2020)
Cite this as: BMJ 2020;370:m3714
Re: Covid-19: The fatal attraction of herd immunity
Dear Editor
Herd immunity in india
Still, there are silver linings in India's Covid-19 fight. The country's mortality rate at 1.58 per cent is the lowest in the world and recovery is among the highest with a recovery rate of 81.72 per cent as of on 25.9.2020
As far as herd immunity goes in India we don't know, whether it works at all or not.
In India, president of the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) and a member of the ICMR National Task Force on Covid-19, described that the herd immunity as a "nebulous concept".
Most regions in India may be inching towards acquiring “involuntary” herd immunity against COVID-19 as about one out of four individuals have already been infected by the coronavirus, suggests a seroprevalence study done by a leading diagnostic and testing company.
Herd immunity is used to describe the indirect protection conferred to a population in which the majority of people have natural or acquired immunity to an infection. This is possible either through a large proportion of the population getting infected or vaccinated.
The herd immunity strategy will not work in countries like india because it can let people to get sick until most are immune and the disease no longer spreads easily will lead to many millions of deaths.
The second problem is that herd immunity is always temporary, because children are born without immunity, and eventually there will be enough susceptible people that the disease can start spreading easily again.
Currenly there is no evidence that the people who have recovered from Covid-19 and have antibodies are protected from a second infection, according to World Health Organization. We are nowhere close to the levels of immunity required to stop this disease transmitting. We need to focus on what we can actually do now to suppress transmission and not live in hope of herd immunity being our salvation.
Vaccines put the spotlight back on herd or population immunity in the 1960s and 1970s as public health specialists worked to achieve sufficient levels of vaccine coverage to stop disease transmission, and in the case of smallpox and polio, eradicate diseases.
So only a vaccine can end the Covid-19 pandemic. A vaccine is critical. Vaccines will save lives now and protect the future generations from COVID-19.
In india
herd immunity right now is not a (government) strategy for coronavirus control. The current strategy is wearing a mask, following social distancing , good hygiene with regular washing of hands and vaccines
Competing interests: No competing interests
25 September 2020
M.A. Aleem
Emeritus Professor of Neurology * Visiting Specialist in Neurology ** Consultant Neurologist ***
The Tamilnadu Dr.M.G.R. Medical University * Dhanalakshami Srinivasan Medical College ** ABC Hospital ***
Chennai 600032* Perambalure 621212** Trichy 620018*** Tamilnadu India
@drmaaleem
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