At the CoronaVac Symposium, an international event to be held on the 7th, 8th and 9th of December by Butantan and Sinovac, Turkish scientists will contribute data from their research on the effectiveness of CoronaVac. The results indicate that the immunizing agent is safe and effective not only in healthy people, but also in individuals with comorbidities, such as obesity and hypertension, and in patients being treated for cancer.
The first guest, Serhat Unal, head of the department of infectious diseases at Hacettepe University, will give a lecture on the 7th at 9 am on the phase 3 clinical trials carried out in Turkey. Research has shown that CoronaVac is well accepted by the body and 83.5% effective against SARS-CoV-2. The vaccine induced antibodies in 89.7% of the participants, and of these, 92% also produced neutralizing antibodies at least 14 days after the second dose. Most adverse effects were mild and the main symptom reported was fatigue.
The randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study was carried out with 10,214 people from different risk groups and occupations, bringing the results closer to the “real world” context. Among the volunteers, 3,675 were health professionals and 1,463 were obese. In addition, 6,217 had some type of comorbidity, hypertension being the most common.
CoronaVac may boost immune response in those who have already had Covid-19
On the second day of the symposium, at 9:40 am, researcher Ahmet Soysal, a specialist in pediatric infectious diseases at the Istanbul Memorial Hospitals Group, will present a study comparing the immunogenicity of CoronaVac among 103 healthcare professionals who were previously infected with SARS-CoV-2, mildly or asymptomatic, and 627 professionals who did not have the disease. The results show that CoronaVac is safe and effective for both groups, inducing greater antibody production in previously infected people (mean 1220 AU/ml) compared to uninfected ones (mean 913 AU/ml).
Protection of cancer patients
Another article by Turkish researchers published in the journal Future Oncology analyzed the safety and immunogenicity of CoronaVac in patients undergoing cancer treatment, i.e., immunosuppressed (who have great difficulties with their immune system). The study was carried out with 47 individuals who received the two doses of vaccine at an interval of 28 days. The immunizing agent generated antibodies in 63.8% of the participants. Among people who were receiving only monoclonal antibodies or immunotherapy with no other medications, 100% developed immunity.
