Amitabh Bachchan, son Abhishek responding well to treatment: Hospital sources

Amitabh, 77, and Abhishek, 44, revealed their diagnosis on Twitter on July 11, saying they were in the isolation ward of Nanavati Hospital.

PTI

July 14, 2020 / 11:50 IST

Megastar Amitabh Bachchan and his son, actor Abhishek Bachchan, who were admitted to a hospital here after testing positive for COVID-19, are “responding well" to the treatment, hospital sources said on Tuesday.

Amitabh, 77, and Abhishek, 44, revealed their diagnosis on Twitter on July 11, saying they were in the isolation ward of Nanavati Hospital.

"Both are stable and are responding well to the treatment. They will have to be in the hospital for at least seven days," the hospital insider told PTI.

Apart from the father-son duo, the screen icon's daughter-in-law, actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, 46, and eight-year-old granddaughter Aaradhya Bachchan also tested positive for COVID-19.

Abhishek confirmed Aishwarya and Aaradhya's diagnosis on the microblogging site on Sunday, adding that they will be "self-quarantining at home".

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

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There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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