Booster Dose: Corbevax

Image Source - The Financial Express

According to a recent announcement from the Indian government, persons who have already taken Covishield or Covaxin as their first or second dosage of Covid-19 may take Corbevax as their third booster shot.

Corbevax is still seeking the Emergency Use Listing (EUL)from the World Health Organization

Up until this point, the vaccination used for the third dose had to be the same as that for the first and second doses.

The choice was made when India's drug authorities authorized Corbevax as a heterologous Covid booster dose for people 18 years of age and above.

About the Corbevax Vaccine

• The two doses of Corbevax, which are spaced 28 days apart, are the country's first Receptor Binding Domain (RBD) protein subunit vaccination against Covid.

• The ideal storage range for India's needs is between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius.
• Working Principle: Corbevax is a "recombinant protein sub-unit" vaccine, meaning it contains a particular component of the SARS-CoV-2 virus: the spike protein on its surface.
• The spike protein enables the virus to penetrate the body's cells where it can reproduce and harm people.
• However, because the rest of the virus is missing when this protein is administered to the body, it is not anticipated to be detrimental.
• It is anticipated that the immune system will react negatively to the injected spike protein.
• Once the protein is recognized by the human immune system, white blood cells called antibodies are created to fight the infection.
• Consequently, the body will already be prepared for an immune reaction when the actual virus tries to infect it, making it unlikely that the individual will become ill.

Other types of Vaccines

Vaccinations that are inactivated:

• Inactivated vaccines employ a disease-causing bacterium that has been killed.

• These vaccines are made by rendering a pathogen inactive, usually using heat or chemicals like formaldehyde or formalin.
• While the pathogen's capacity to reproduce is destroyed, it is kept "intact" enough that the immune system can still detect it. (Viral vaccines of this kind are typically referred to as "inactivated" rather than "killed," as viruses are typically not thought of as being alive.)

Live-attenuated Vaccines:

• Live vaccines use a disease-causing microbe in a weaker (or attenuated) form.

• These vaccines produce a potent and robust immune response because they closely resemble the natural infection that they help avoid.

mRNA Vaccines:

• mRNA vaccines produce proteins to stimulate an immune response. mRNA vaccines have several advantages over other vaccine kinds, including quicker manufacturing timeframes and no risk of infection in the recipient due to the absence of a live virus.

• The vaccinations provide defense against Covid-19.
• The toxin (harmful substance) produced by the pathogen that causes a disease is used in toxoid vaccines.
• Instead of the germ itself, they develop immunity to the components of the germ that are responsible for a disease. This indicates that the immune response is focused on the poison rather than the entire germ.
• Live vaccinations make use of a disease-causing bacterium that has been weakened or attenuated.

Vaccines with a viral vector:

• Vaccines with a viral vector give protection by using a modified form of a different virus.

• The influenza virus, the vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), the measles virus, and the adenovirus that causes the common cold have all been utilized as vectors.