{"id":232370,"date":"2022-07-26T08:26:28","date_gmt":"2022-07-26T06:26:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/press\/hybrid-immunity-signals-a-possible-end-to-the-pandemic?lang=en"},"modified":"2022-07-26T08:26:28","modified_gmt":"2022-07-26T06:26:28","slug":"hybrid-immunity-signals-a-possible-end-to-the-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/hybrid-immunity-signals-a-possible-end-to-the-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Hybrid immunity signals a possible end to the pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/large\/69f5e92760b856c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/large\/69f5e92760b856c\" alt=\"Ministry of Health, eSwatini\" style=\"max-width:500px\" \/><\/a><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/files\/download\/69f5e92760b856c\">Download logo<\/a><br \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/africarc\/loganalytics?press_id=209541&amp;press_source=Ministry of Health, eSwatini\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A recent study by University of Witwatersrand Vaccines and Infectious Analytics Research (VIDA) reveals that people who have had both the COVID-19 vaccine and prior exposure to the virus, are less likely to get severe COVID-19 disease. This type of immunity is called hybrid immunity, also sometimes called &lsquo;super immunity&rsquo;, and has been highlighted as the best way of reducing Severe illness and death in people who get infected with the SARS-Cov_2 virus, the virus that causes COVID-19.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>The study, entitled &lsquo;Population Immunity and COVID-19 Severity with Omicron Variant in South Africa&rsquo; reveals that we ideally need both types of immunity. According to the research, the discovery of hybrid COVID-19 immunity signals a hopeful turn in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>Senior epidemiologist and research study author at Wits VIDA, Dr Portia Mutevedzi states that hybrid immunity is considered a double layer of protection against COVID-19. &ldquo;There are two types of immunity; natural immunity which we develop through exposure to the virus and vaccine induced immunity which develops as a result of vaccination,&rdquo; Dr Mutevedzi adds. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The study researchers estimated the number of seropositive, that is people who had antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 within the general population of Gauteng. The results showed that individuals were 93.1% more likely to be seropositive if they had both the vaccine and prior exposure to COVID-19. This is especially important for diseases such as COVID-19 that result in severe illness and death. Vaccinating individuals even after they have had the disease ensures that they have higher levels of antibodies for a longer period.<\/p>\n<p>As a result of this hybrid immunity, during the fourth wave there were far fewer cases of hospitalisations and deaths due to COVID-19, compared to earlier waves. The omicron variant resulted in 1 in 100 cases requiring hospitalisation while previously it was 1 in 24.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The research proves that vaccination saves lives&rdquo;, concludes Dr Mutevedzi. She adds that the public should be aware that due to the unpredictable mutation of COVID-19, new emerging variants may require us to get booster shots. Therefore, it is important especially for high risk-groups to get vaccinated as well as get booster doses even if they have previously suffered from COVID-19.<\/p>\n<p><i>Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Ministry of Health, eSwatini.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-newsroom.com\/\">Source: Africa Newsroom &#8211; APO<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Download logo A recent study by University of Witwatersrand Vaccines and Infectious Analytics Research (VIDA) reveals that people who have had both the COVID-19 vaccine and prior exposure to the virus, are less likely to get severe COVID-19 disease. This type of immunity is called hybrid immunity, also sometimes called &lsquo;super immunity&rsquo;, and has been [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":232371,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[4585],"class_list":{"0":"post-232370","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-africa-news-2","8":"tag-apo","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/hybrid-immunity-signals-a-possible-end-to-the-pandemic.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}