The Ministry of Health (Minsa) will apply from this Monday a booster dose with Sputnik Light to people who completed their two-dose Sputnik V vaccination schedule before August. Likewise, the application of the second doses of the Soberana 02 and Abdala vaccines to children and adolescents will begin.
This is the second vaccine that the Minsa authorities are applying as a booster. A couple of weeks ago they started to inoculate those vaccinated with Covishield with AstraZeneca. These doses began to be applied in April and the scheme was completed in June.
The international recommendation is that the reinforcement or booster, as it is known in English, is applied after six months of completing the vaccination schedule, since it has been seen that antibodies decrease. However, in Nicaragua it would be being applied ahead of time.
“The period that is being given is that the reinforcement is put from six months onwards; However, if you put it on before or after, absolutely nothing happens. However, you are not taking advantage of the moment where your antibodies are already beginning to drop “explains Dr. Leonel Argüello.
He also comments that the priority should be to apply the first and second doses to achieve greater vaccination coverage. “It is much better to have more people vaccinated because that way when the virus occurs in one person it is not capable of being transmitted to the other because the chain of transmission is being cut. In the case of Nicaragua, the priority should first be to have coverage of 80%, which we can reach very quickly because we have the capacity, “he adds.
Few data on Sputnik V reinforcement
The first doses of Sputnik V were applied last March to a small group of patients with chronic kidney failure, who completed their second dose in April. Therefore, they would already have more than six months after completing their scheme. Nevertheless, those who were vaccinated in May and completed their schedule in June and July are barely five months old.
Likewise, although the application of booster doses is a measure that is carried out at the international level, mainly to provide protection against the delta variant —which is already circulating in Nicaragua—, there are no studies to suggest the application of a booster dose for Sputnik V.
“Sputnik Light is the first dose of Sputnik V. This has two doses, the second has a different component than the first dose; then If you give a person who already has two doses of Sputnik V Sputnik Light (as a booster), you would actually be giving them the first dose, it may be that it will serve as a booster, but there is no scientific evidence or publications around the Sputnik V vaccines and the booster ”, explains Argüello.
On the application of Sputnik Light as a reinforcement if there are studies that suggest it, but these are for given in combination with AstraZeneca, Sinopharm, Moderna and Cansino vaccines.
“We believe that Sputnik Light could be the main vaccine within a year, when many people only have to be vaccinated again or have suffered from COVID-19 and do not need Sputnik V, ”Kirill Dmitriev, executive director of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), told international media.
Although there is little data to support the application of booster to those vaccinated with Sputnik V; in Argentina reinforcement is being applied with Sputnik Light and AstraZeneca to those who already have their complete scheme with this Russian vaccine.
Reinforcement in the region
This week, The Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) approved on Friday the application of booster doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine in the adult population from the United States.
Booster doses are also applied in Central America. In Costa Rica, which already has 58.9% of its population vaccinated with both doses, it is being applied booster those over 58 and front-line staff. In Honduras, which has a coverage of 39% of vaccinated, reinforcement is being applied to health personnel.
According to the latest vaccination data in Nicaragua, shared by the Ministry of Health (Minsa) to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the inoculation coverage against covid-19 is only 7.38%, with both doses, and the 17.6% with a. However, the vice president Rosario Murillo has affirmed that the country has already reached a coverage of 59.18% of the population, but there are no clear data to corroborate this percentage.
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