A hospital corpsman processes biological samples during a U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit Indo Pacific study on natural- and vaccine-derived immunity of respiratory diseases in U.S. sailors and Marines in September 2023. (U.S. Navy)
TOKYO — Four years after the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the United States, a Navy research lab is recruiting active-duty volunteers at two bases in Japan for a follow-up study on vaccines.
Singapore-based U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit Indo Pacific will collect blood and saliva samples at Yokosuka Naval Base and Naval Air Facility Atsugi, both south of Tokyo, later this month.
The study is a follow-up to a similar one last year that showed the XBB.1.5 booster is likely to decrease the number of duty days a sailor might lose to COVID-19 by hindering the transmission of the virus behind the respiratory disease, according to a Navy Medicine news release from Dec. 18.
“Although other elements in the U.S., including the Department of Defense, have done similar studies, as well as militaries outside of the U.S., Naval Medical Research Unit Indo Pacific’s study is the largest and most in-depth that has been conducted,” Capt. Andrew Letizia, the unit’s science director, said in a statement emailed by Tommy Lamkin, spokesman for Naval Medical Research Command.
The command’s COVID-19 research is focused on the active-duty population, with almost all participants in the range of 20 to 45 years old, Letizia said.
Each participant will provide 1.2 ounces of blood and 0.06 ounces of saliva, Lamkin said. They will also answer a questionnaire about past COVID-19 exposures, vaccination history and infections.
The collection will take place at Yokosuka from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Aug. 27 to Sept. 20 at the second-floor lab of the naval hospital, and at NAF Atsugi from 8 a.m. to noon Aug. 28 at the base health clinic, according to a news release Aug. 6 from the medical research unit.
Volunteers do not need to sign up beforehand and can show up to the respective labs during the hours listed, Lt. Huy Nguyen, a principal investigator for the study, said in an email Wednesday.
The samples will be processed within four hours at Yokosuka Naval Hospital’s lab and then shipped to Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Command Diagnostics Surveillance Division and Walter Reed Army Institute of Research B Cell Biology, two DOD labs in Silver Spring, Md., for analysis.
“Most other researchers in academia are not studying this demographic of young adults whose immune systems are much different than children or older Americans,” Letizia said. “Therefore, we can’t rely on other researchers to answer this specific scientific question. Instead, we have designed the entire study around DoD members.”
The command conducts infectious disease research and studies viruses, microbes and insects in the Indo-Pacific to protect the medical readiness and health of service members, their families and partner nations, according to the research unit’s website.
The unit’s first COVID-19 study, the Survey Immune Response to Coronavirus Disease, took place last year at Yokosuka Naval Base with support from 7th Fleet, Lamkin said.
SARS-CoV-2, the respiratory virus that causes COVID-19, will continue to mutate, producing new variants that are more transmissible, immune-evasive and possibly capable of causing a more severe disease, Nguyen said.
Also, immunity against infection, whether from a natural infection or a vaccination, usually decreases within three to four months, Nguyen said.
“It is important to gather the most up-to-date immunologic data of our troops against the latest circulating variants to see where we stand to inform future booster recommendations,” Nguyen said.
