What is Sputnik V vaccine? Is it effective against COVID 19?
It’s been a year and half since we have been affected by the pandemic, it is not just one or two country that is suffering from the deadly virus but every other country out there has been affected because of it. We not just lost lots and lots of human population to the virus, we have also failed as countries to save it’s economy, infrastructure, education, health and etc. Even though all of this did not stop us from finding a solution against the virus and that the invention of a vaccine. All the great institutions and companies like Oxford University, Serum Institute, Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson, etc. You name it and every other country, company and institution have tried their best at finding a solution against Covid 19.And Sputnik V is the result of one such effort taken by Russia.
What is Sputnik Vaccine?
Sputnik V vaccine is developed by Gamaleya National Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, situated in Moscow, Russia. It a vaccine created against the Corona virus to increase one’s immunity and fight the battle against Covid 19.
How does the Sputnik vaccine work?
Sputnik V is an adeno virus (that cause common cold in humans) viral vector vaccine. This vaccine uses a modified version of that virus that cannot replicate which has been inserted with the spike protein of the SARS – CoV-2 Virus. This is expected to bring about an immune response in the body. The spike protein used in the vaccine ensures that when the real virus, that corona virus infects the body it can mount an immune response in the form of antibodies.
What makes the Sputnik vaccine unique than the others?
The Sputnik V vaccine is a two vector vaccine, which means that the vaccine uses two different doses of Adeno virus. For the first dose it uses rAD26, while for the second dose it uses rAD5, which is said to be more efficient.
Both the doses of vaccine can be taken within a gap of 21 days.
How is Sputnik vaccine stored?
The proper storage of all the vaccines is a very serious concern because if not stored properly, the vaccines will be wasted and can’t be used for the patients. Sputnik V vaccine has to be stored at -18 degree Celsius in it’s liquid form, but in it’s freeze-dried state the vaccine can be stored at 2-8 degree Celsius in a conventional refrigerator without investing in any additional cold – chain infrastructure.
In how many countries are giving Sputnik vaccine to their citizens?
Sputnik V is approved for use over 55 countries all over the world, with a total population of 1.5 billion according to RIDF (Russian Direct Investment Fund). And it has been decided that $10 would be charged per shot. Some of the countries in list are as follows: Belarus, Argentina, Serbia, Algeria, UAE, Pakistan, Myanmar, Mexico, Mongolia, Iraq, Seychelles, Vietnam, Mali, Lebanon, Mauritius, Philippines, Kenya and many more.
And India has recently been added to the list of countries which will be receiving doses of Sputnik V and it has been registered in India under the emergency use authorization procedure based on results of clinical trials in Russia as well as positive data of additional phase III local clinical trials in India conducted in partnership with Dr.Reddy’s Laboratories.
And according to the PTI reports, around 10 crore doses of the Sputnik vaccine is likely to be imported for emergency use in our country India in the next six to seven months and also to overcome the lack of vaccines that the country is facing right now. Thus, India is going use three different vaccines to control the rise of the virus in the country: Covishield (Serum Institute, Pune), Covaxin (Bharat Biotech, Kolkata) and Sputnik V (Gamaleya Institute, Russia).
Now that we know about all the other details regarding Sputnik Vaccine like where it is manufactured, what is it made of, etc, we also have to know about how effective it is.
How effective is Sputnik against Covid 19?
Sputnik V created by the Russian Gamaleya National Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology is said to be 91.6% efficiency in it’s Phase III clinical trials, and the results have been published in Lancet, one of the top medical journals. The vaccine is said to be effective for active immunization against Covid 19 in individuals aged 18 years and above and it can be administered intramuscular with doses of 0.5ml each within an interval of 21 days.
Specific details about Sputnik vaccine:
Like we all know that the vaccine has been prepared from the human adenoviral vectors, which uses two different vectors for the two different jabs for vaccination.
And the data states that from 3.8 million Russians who have received both the doses of the vaccine from December 5, 2020 to March 31, 2021, as a part of mass scale inoculation drive revealed that there was only an infection rate of 0.027% starting from the 35th day after launching the mass vaccination. Also, the decease incidence among the unvaccinated people (adults) was 1.1% from the 35th day after the launch of the mass vaccination.
And thus according to RIDF (Russian Investment Direct Fund) the efficiency rate of the Sputnik V vaccine is 97.6%. While The Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology Director Alexander Gintsburg said: “The actual efficacy of the Sputnik V vaccine may be even higher than the results of our analysis demonstrate since the data on the case registration system allows a time lag between the collection of the sample (the actual date of the disease) and the diagnosis.”
Now we know that what is the efficiency rate of the Sputnik V vaccine against corona virus, but it is also important to know that is it effective against the new mutants of the virus?
Does Sputnik Vaccine work against the mutant variants of the virus?
New mutant variants of the virus has been developing since the past few months, and it’s deadliness, symptoms vary from country to country. And the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology studied the effectiveness of the virus against the UK’s mutant variant and South Africa’s mutant variant. And they found out that the Sputnik V vaccine works well against the UK variant and has almost the similar effective rate against the mutant variant like that on the original variant but it is not very effective against the South African variant. Although research has been going and they should find some amazing results yet once again soon enough.
So, Sputnik V has 91 -97% of efficiency rate against Covid 19, thus Russia is successful in making a very powerful vaccine against the virus, which not only boosts immunity but also reduces the chance of infection from the virus in the humans.
But what is important right now is that fact that whichever vaccine you take will not assure you a 100% safety against the virus. They will only be efficient up to a certain percent, so it our own duty to be safe when out by wearing masks, using sanitizers whenever necessary, and following social distancing effectively will lead us to leave a healthy life.
References:
Russia’s Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine shows 97.6% efficacy (pharmaceutical-technology.com)
All you need to know about the Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine | Deccan Herald
Sputnik V Vaccine: uses, cause, efficacy, and How it works against coronavirus (indianexpress.com)