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Clinical characteristics and drug susceptibility profiles of Mycobacterium abscessus complex infection at a medical school in Thailand

Chulalongkorn Medical Student Contributes to Research on COVID-19 Immunity in Children

Harit Phowatthanasathian, a medical student at Chulalongkorn University, contributed to an international research study investigating how previous COVID-19 infection and vaccination affect immunity against the Omicron BA.5 variant in children.

Working with researchers from the Center of Excellence in Clinical Virology, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, under the leadership of Professor Yong Poovorawan, the research team studied antibody responses in 196 children aged 5–7 years with different combinations of previous infection and vaccination.

The study found that children who had both previous infection and two doses of vaccination developed the strongest neutralizing antibody response against Omicron BA.5. Detectable neutralizing antibodies were found in 90% of children with hybrid immunity, compared with 62.2% after two doses of vaccination and 48% after Omicron infection alone.

The findings support the importance of COVID-19 vaccination in children, including those who have previously been infected, and provide valuable evidence on how hybrid immunity can strengthen protection against emerging variants.

The study was published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases in 2023.

For more details, read the full research article here : https://www.ijidonline.com/article/S1201-9712(23)00556-8/fulltext

 

Authors and Affiliations

Darlene Ariyaskul and Kittipat Kulkraisri

Center of Excellence for Innovation and Endoscopy in Gastrointestinal Oncology, Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University

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