FORMER Covid-19 patients should get vaccinated to protect themselves against re-infection, said director-general of health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

Recovered patients will have antibodies but it is still not known how strong this immune response is and how long it can last.

Noor Hisham told The Malaysian Insight that the risk of getting re-infected soon after recovery by the same virus is rare.

“Studies in the United States, the United Kingdom and Denmark point to 80% to 90% protection from re-infection for about six to eight months,” he said.

“But the strength of the immune response is not completely known. As such, people who have recovered from Covid-19 should still be vaccinated to gain protection by high humoral or cellular immunity levels.”

He said former Covid-19 patients who have recovered are already being inoculated against the coronavirus.

The World Health Organization has said former Covid-19 patients will develop an immune response within the first few weeks of their recovery but it also agreed that it is not known yet how strong and lasting that immune response is.

It said the immune response may also vary between different people.

There have also been some instances of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 a second time, which makes getting vaccinated even more important,” it added.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also noted that people who have previously tested positive for Covid-19 may still benefit from getting vaccinated.

Timing

Noor Hisham said clinical guidance currently recommends that those who have recovered from Covid-19 should wait three months after recovery before receiving the vaccine.

As recovered patients still have some antibodies, it is wise to target those who have not yet been infected as the focus is to achieve herd immunity.

“It is prudent to vaccinate people who have not been infected over those who have recently recovered from Covid-19 within the past 90 days,” he said.

“For individuals treated for Covid-19 with monoclonal antibodies or convalescent plasma, the vaccination should be deferred for 90 days.”

Work is also underway to understand the implications of reduced protection for recovered Covid-19 patients in view of the emergence of new virus variants.

“The timing of full vaccination for recovered patients may need to be updated as new evidence becomes available,” Noor Hisham said.

In Malaysia, as of June 1, more than three million doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered. Of this, 2,002,345 are the first dose and 1,104,873 are the second dose.

Malaysia is using three Covid-19 vaccines, namely those produced by Pfizer, Sinovac and AstraZeneca. In the pipeline pending approval are those by CanSinoBIO and Sputnik V.

According to Our World in Data, Malaysia, as of May 31, had vaccinated 3.45% of its population. – June 3, 2021.