Hybrid immunity is a new concept of immunity derived from natural infection plus vaccination (usually single dose). In collaborative work with Dr. Padmanabha Shenoy’s group from Cochin, Kerala, Dr. Sakir Ahmed, Associate Prof of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology, KIMS could show that hybrid immunity is non-inferior to immunity induced by two doses of vaccination. This may have practical implications on vaccination policies such that persons who already had natural infections might require a single dose of vaccine. This means saving millions of vaccine doses. The world already has constraints in vaccine supply and many high income countries are using booster doses that will stretch the vaccine supply thin.
This work has been published in the Lancet Rheumatology and the full text is freely available: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanrhe/article/PIIS2665-9913(21)00356-8/fulltext.
It may be mentioned that Dr. Sakir has 21 publications related to COVID-19 in indexed international journals such as Annals of Rheumatic Diseases (IF: 19), Journal of Autoimmunity (IF: 7.1) and others.