/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/copesa/ZVHN26JWS5FVHJLNZLSS2GJ6BI.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1)
From medicine it is known that Obesity is not only a characteristic of the patient, rather, it is a disease that addresses the person as a whole or compromises him in different dimensions, and one of them is immunity.
A deregulation of the immune system, which would determine a greater risk of presenting, not only serious cases of Covid-19but also -as various studies have shown- other infections such as influenza and hepatitis, in addition to other research showing that with the first application of the first doses of vaccines, these patients had lower levels of antibodies.
In relation specifically al Sars-CoV-2, a systematic review showed that people with obesity have a 46% increased risk of developing the infection, 113% higher risk of hospitalization74% more in ICU admission and 48% more mortality risk.
Therefore, a team of researchers from Santa Maria Clinic Next to the The End of the Earth conducted a study to determine whether there was an association between obesity and a lower response to the Covd-19 vaccine, measured by neutralizing antibodies against this disease, after the administration of the booster dose.
“It was important to know if the combined booster scheme that we have in Chile, would or would not allow these obese patients to equalize their antibody levelswith respect to the non-obese population” explains the Dr. Tomás Regueirachief physician of the Critical Units of Clínica Santa María and director of Postgraduate of the School of Medicine of the U. Finis Terraeand who also led the investigation.
The results showed that the booster dose, with the mixed scheme that the country has, allowed patients with obesity have the same antibody levels at the second and third month as those without this diseaseindicating that the immunogenic response is the same in both groups.
However, the analysis showed that the loss of antibody levels over time is faster in the obese group compared to the normal weight groupapproximately from the third month after the third inoculation.
The fear is not minor, because according to the latest National Health Survey (2016-2017), 34.4% of the adult Chilean population is obese. That is, one in three Chileans has this condition.
Despite the results, the doctor says that the result of the study is valuable, because although it shows a drop in antibodies in the obese population from the fourth month after receiving the vaccine, “allows us to validate, from the point of view of antibodies, that obese patients are indeed protected with the booster scheme and forgive the redundancy, it reinforces the concept that it is very important booster vaccination in patients who have risk factorsin this case, obesity”, points out Dr. Regueira.
The leader of the investigation highlights that the results are consistent with the fact that the third wave, registered in Chile at the end of 2021, “it affected to a greater extent people who were within the elderly and immunosuppressed adult population, Unlike the previous waves, in which there was a greater number of patients with obesity hospitalized and in the ICU, a stage in which a booster dose was not yet administered”.
For this reason, the analysis carried out in January of this year considered a sample of 234 people who had the third dose in a period greater than 14 days and less than 150, divided into a normal weight group (with Body Mass Index (BMI) from 18.5 to 24.9) and an obese group (with a BMI equal to or greater than 30) with an equal proportion of men and women, in an age range of between 35 and 60 years.
Along with it, candidates should not having presented Covid-19 during the previous 12 months to the study, not have chronic diseases that would alter the function of the immune system, nor be on corticosteroids or immunosuppressive therapy at any time after the third dose.
Thus, they found that obese patients from the fourth month begin to lower their antibody levels compared to non-obese patients, “this could be important in terms of of considering them a population at risk to be vaccinated as a priority as it increases the fifth, sixth dose of booster vaccination”, in addition to the fact that they will require it earlier, emphasizes Regueira.
What, according to the study, confirms that the initial vaccination schedule was insufficient to level the antibodies and that the combined vaccination schedule in Chile has been efficient for the population with obesity.
–
