A sero survey by Mumbai’s civic body in Maharashtra has discovered that women have more antibodies than men to fight the coronavirus.
It also pointed that sero positivity in non-slum areas was rising, while it was lowering in slum areas, which matches the current trend that a large number of patients are being identified from the former in the current COVID-19 surge, officials said.
A civic official explained that sero positivity involves a blood test showing a positive result for a particular antibody.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation study, details of which were published on Saturday, showed sero positivity among women was 37.12 per cent as against 35.02 per cent in men.
“In the sero survey, 41.61 per centsero positivity was found in blood samples taken from municipal dispensaries in slum areas. Overall, 36.30 per cent sero positivity is found in 10,197 blood samples collected from citizens from all 24 wards in Mumbai,” it said.
“The samples were tested for antibodies in BMC’s molecular biology laboratory in its Kasturba Hospital premises. The first survey in July last year had found 57 percent seropositivity in slum areas of three wards, while the one in August showed 45 per cent seropositivity in slum areas,” an official said.
“Blood samples taken from private laboratories in non-slum areas showed sero positivity of 28.5 percent in the current survey. In the first survey conducted in July last year, this figure was 16 per cent for three wards and 18 per cent in the one held in August,” he added.
In March this year, the sero survey was done using the “unlinked anonymous sampling method” with blood samples collected from those who had not been vaccinated, and was the third after similar studies in July and August last year, a BMC release said.
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