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Economic Times
14-05-2025
- Health
- Economic Times
We survived COVID, but getting sick so often now? Here's what 'immunity debt' means, and why you MUST know it
It's a mix of coughs and sneezes at the OPD of a major hospital in Delhi. 'I had a fever and cough two weeks ago. The fever went away in three days, but the cough stayed,' says a patient waiting to see the doctor. Another one adds, 'Earlier, I rarely fell ill during season change. But after Covid, I catch something every time. I don't know why.' As per a TOI report, many people across India are now falling sick more often with coughs, fevers, and other seasonal illnesses. While some believe this could be due to long Covid, others are talking about something called 'immunity debt'. The term was first used in 2021 when New Zealand saw a sudden rise in babies being hospitalised with RSV (a virus that causes cold-like symptoms). Experts say 'immunity debt' means that when people don't come into contact with common germs for a long time, their immunity weakens. According to a recent study by the University of Oxford and Peking University, the Covid safety rules, like staying home, wearing masks, washing hands, protected us from Covid but also stopped us from getting exposed to other viruses. Once the restrictions ended, people started falling sick more easily. 'The stricter the Covid rules in a country, the bigger the flu outbreak afterwards,' study author Li Chen of Peking University told TOI. Oxford expert Daniel Prieto-Alhambra added, 'By avoiding flu for a few years, we now have a population that's more vulnerable to infections.' The study, published in Advanced Science, looked at flu data from 116 countries between 2012 and 2024, including India. It found that during lockdown, global flu cases fell by nearly 46%. But in 2022, after restrictions eased, flu cases jumped by 132% compared to before the pandemic. The study warns that this kind of immunity debt could lead to major flu outbreaks in the years after a India, the lockdown lasted from March to May 2020, with distancing measures continuing much Suranjit Chatterjee, senior internal medicine consultant at Apollo Hospital in Delhi, told TOI that cases of flu and other viral infections have become more severe and frequent after the pandemic. However, he says more research is needed to confirm if this is due to immunity Rommel Tickoo, internal medicine director at Max Hospital, Delhi, said it could also be linked to long Covid symptoms or post-Covid weakness.A separate study by analytics firm Airfinity and Bloomberg showed that over 40 countries have seen disease outbreaks since 2020 that were 10 times worse than pre-Covid levels. Measles, once eliminated in the US, has returned. Whooping cough is rising too. Experts say this might be linked to people skipping vaccinations during the N K Mehra, immunologist and senior scientist at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), told TOI that the immunity debt theory goes against the concept of 'immune memory'. He explained that once someone catches a virus or gets vaccinated, the body remembers how to fight it. But in the case of flu, this memory doesn't always work well because the virus keeps changing.A 2022 study by the University of New South Wales in Australia found that a few people had an overactive immune system months after having Covid, but researchers said such cases were rare and not proof of long-term immune some experts believe immunity debt could be real. Michael Levin, a professor at Imperial College London, told The Guardian that children and adults build immunity by being exposed to viruses. 'It's possible that people today have met fewer viruses and are now more vulnerable,' he said. However, he added that scientists still don't fully understand how much repeated exposure is needed to maintain immunity. Some illnesses, like measles and smallpox, give lifelong protection after just one agree that vaccines are the best way to prevent disease surges. Even if immunity debt is real, vaccines can help reduce the Shuchin Bajaj of Ujala Cygnus Healthcare told TOI that future pandemic plans should balance safety measures with efforts to keep up our immunity, especially against regular seasonal viruses. 'It's better to relax restrictions slowly, give off-season vaccines, and be ready for infection spikes after a pandemic,' he said. Inputs from TOI
Time of India
14-05-2025
- Health
- Time of India
We survived COVID, but getting sick so often now? Here's what 'immunity debt' means, and why you MUST know it
What is immunity debt? Live Events What do Indian doctors say? Does the theory really hold? Can vaccines help? (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel It's a mix of coughs and sneezes at the OPD of a major hospital in Delhi. 'I had a fever and cough two weeks ago. The fever went away in three days, but the cough stayed,' says a patient waiting to see the doctor. Another one adds, 'Earlier, I rarely fell ill during season change. But after Covid , I catch something every time. I don't know why.'As per a TOI report, many people across India are now falling sick more often with coughs, fevers, and other seasonal illnesses . While some believe this could be due to long Covid , others are talking about something called ' immunity debt '.The term was first used in 2021 when New Zealand saw a sudden rise in babies being hospitalised with RSV (a virus that causes cold-like symptoms). Experts say 'immunity debt' means that when people don't come into contact with common germs for a long time, their immunity to a recent study by the University of Oxford and Peking University, the Covid safety rules , like staying home, wearing masks, washing hands, protected us from Covid but also stopped us from getting exposed to other viruses. Once the restrictions ended, people started falling sick more easily.'The stricter the Covid rules in a country, the bigger the flu outbreak afterwards,' study author Li Chen of Peking University told TOI. Oxford expert Daniel Prieto-Alhambra added, 'By avoiding flu for a few years, we now have a population that's more vulnerable to infections.'The study, published in Advanced Science, looked at flu data from 116 countries between 2012 and 2024, including India. It found that during lockdown, global flu cases fell by nearly 46%. But in 2022, after restrictions eased, flu cases jumped by 132% compared to before the pandemic. The study warns that this kind of immunity debt could lead to major flu outbreaks in the years after a India, the lockdown lasted from March to May 2020, with distancing measures continuing much Suranjit Chatterjee, senior internal medicine consultant at Apollo Hospital in Delhi, told TOI that cases of flu and other viral infections have become more severe and frequent after the pandemic. However, he says more research is needed to confirm if this is due to immunity Rommel Tickoo, internal medicine director at Max Hospital, Delhi, said it could also be linked to long Covid symptoms or post-Covid weakness.A separate study by analytics firm Airfinity and Bloomberg showed that over 40 countries have seen disease outbreaks since 2020 that were 10 times worse than pre-Covid levels. Measles, once eliminated in the US, has returned. Whooping cough is rising too. Experts say this might be linked to people skipping vaccinations during the N K Mehra, immunologist and senior scientist at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), told TOI that the immunity debt theory goes against the concept of 'immune memory'. He explained that once someone catches a virus or gets vaccinated, the body remembers how to fight it. But in the case of flu, this memory doesn't always work well because the virus keeps changing.A 2022 study by the University of New South Wales in Australia found that a few people had an overactive immune system months after having Covid, but researchers said such cases were rare and not proof of long-term immune some experts believe immunity debt could be real. Michael Levin, a professor at Imperial College London, told The Guardian that children and adults build immunity by being exposed to viruses. 'It's possible that people today have met fewer viruses and are now more vulnerable,' he said. However, he added that scientists still don't fully understand how much repeated exposure is needed to maintain immunity. Some illnesses, like measles and smallpox, give lifelong protection after just one agree that vaccines are the best way to prevent disease surges. Even if immunity debt is real, vaccines can help reduce the Shuchin Bajaj of Ujala Cygnus Healthcare told TOI that future pandemic plans should balance safety measures with efforts to keep up our immunity, especially against regular seasonal viruses. 'It's better to relax restrictions slowly, give off-season vaccines, and be ready for infection spikes after a pandemic,' he from TOI
Globe and Mail
03-03-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Hua Medicine Awarded Shanghai Innovative Enterprise Headquarters
SHANGHAI, Mar 3, 2025 - (ACN Newswire) - On February 27th, the awarding ceremony of the second batch of Shanghai Innovative Enterprise Headquarters was held in Shanghai. Gong Zheng, Deputy Secretary of Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and Mayor of Shanghai, awarded the certificates to 49 innovative enterprise headquarters, and Hua Medicine was among them. Dr. Li Chen, the founder and CEO of the Company, went on stage to receive the award and delivered a speech as a representative of the enterprises. Innovative enterprises are an important part of Shanghai's modern industrial system and the source of vitality for Shanghai's high-quality development. In recent years, innovative enterprises in Shanghai have been growing and developing rapidly, having an obvious driving effect on the industry. The enterprises awarded this time are from key industrial fields such as integrated circuits, biomedicine, artificial intelligence, digital economy, and emerging strategic comprehensive industries. All the selected enterprises exhibit the characteristics of strong innovation leadership, vigorous development vitality, and obvious agglomeration development. Hua Medicine, headquartered in Shanghai but with a global outlook, is leveraging China's evolving pharmaceutical regulatory landscape and the innovative drug full-chain industrial environment such as the pharmaceutical research and development, production, and business environment created by Shanghai to continuously accelerate the transformation and implementation of innovative achievements. Hua Medicine took ten years to develop a globally first-in-class and national Class I new drug, glucokinase activator (GKA) dorzagliatin (Trade name:) independently, which was first launched in China, with a globally new target and a new mechanism. In September 2022, dorzagliatin was approved for marketing by the National Medical Products Administration of China for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. It is the first GKA approved for marketing worldwide and has also become the tenth class of diabetes treatment drugs recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO). By the end of 2023, dorzagliatin was successfully included in China's National Reimbursement Drug List (NRDL), greatly improving the accessibility and affordability of this innovative drug for patients. As a global innovation leader in the GKA field, Hua Medicine has received national-level awards on multiple occasions during the research and development period and after the product launch, and has undertaken major national projects. These include being consecutively selected as a major new drug development special project under the "12th Five-Year Plan" and the "13th Five-Year Plan' by the Ministry of Science and Technology, and winning the First Prize of the Science and Technology Award of the Chinese Pharmaceutical Association, among others. Currently, Hua Medicine is actively carrying out the development of the second-generation GKA and fixed combination preparations, aiming to bring more innovative and good drugs to patients in China and even globally in the fields of diabetes and its complications, such as obesity and diabetic nephropathy. As a representative of the enterprises, Dr. Li Chen said in his speech at the awarding ceremony: "Coinciding with the new era and new journey of Shanghai accelerating the construction of a scientific and technological innovation center and fully promoting the upgrading and development of strategic emerging industries, Hua Medicine being recognized as the Shanghai Innovative Enterprise Headquarters is an affirmation of the enterprise's past and also an encouragement and inspiration for the enterprise's future development. Hua Medicine will continue to leverage its advantages of conceptual innovation, technological innovation, and model innovation, keep making progress, and contribute to the construction of Shanghai's scientific and technological innovation center and the innovative development of the biomedicine industry." Receiving the title of "Shanghai Innovative Enterprise Headquarters" this time is not only an honor for Hua Medicine but also a responsibility and mission. In the future, taking this as an opportunity, Hua Medicine will continuously increase its innovation investment and the ability of achievement transformation, continuously enhance its international competitiveness, provide more high-quality innovative drugs and treatment solutions for patients, help Shanghai's biomedicine industry reach new heights, and promote the construction of the "Healthy China" strategy. About Hua Medicine Hua Medicine (The 'Company') is an innovative drug development and commercialization company based in Shanghai, China, with companies in the United States and Hong Kong. Hua Medicine focuses on developing novel therapies for patients with unmet medical needs worldwide. Based on global resources, Hua Medicine teams up with global high-calibre people to develop breakthrough technologies and products, which contribute to innovation in diabetes care. Hua Medicine's cornerstone product HuaTangNing (dorzagliatin tablets), targets the glucose sensor glucokinase, restores glucose sensitivity in T2D patients, and stabilizes imbalances in blood glucose levels in patients. HuaTangNing was approved by the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) of China on September 30th, 2022. It can be used alone or in combination with metformin for adult T2D patients. For patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), no dose adjustment is required. It is an oral hypoglycemic drug that can be used for patients with Type 2 diabetes with renal function impairment. ]]>
