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Image source, fake images
Professor Paul Hunter of the University of East Anglia says the case is “very worrying” due to the small gap between the two infections and the severity of the second.
A young man in the United States contracted Covid-19 twice and the second infection was much more serious than the first, says a medical report.
On the second occasion, the individual, a 25-year-old from Nevada, had to undergo treatment at a hospital after suffering respiratory failure.
Reinfections remain rare and the young man recovered, but this report published by the British magazine Infectious Diseases Lancet raises questions about how much immunity can be developed against the virus.
The affected patient had no known health problems or immune disorders that made him particularly vulnerable to covid-19.
What the it happened and when?
- March 25: You experience symptoms for the first time, including a sore throat, cough, headache, nausea, and diarrhea.
- April 18: gets the first positive for coronavirus
- April 27: initial symptoms disappear completely
- May 9 and 26: negative in two coronavirus tests
- May 28: Symptoms again, this time fever, headache, dizziness, cough, nausea, and diarrhea.
- June 5: tests positive for the second time and this time is hypoxic (has low oxygen levels in the blood) and has difficulty breathing.
A previous infection does not necessarily protect
According to scientists, the patient contracted coronavirus twice and it was not a case in which the first infection became inactive and then reappeared.
Image source, fake images
According to Dr. Mark Pandori of the University of Nevada, a previous infection does not necessarily protect against future infections.
A comparison of the genetic codes of the virus taken during each symptom period showed that they were too different to be caused by the same infection.
“Our findings indicate that a previous infection does not necessarily protect against future infections, “said Dr. Mark Pandori, from the University of Nevada, USA.
“The possibility of reinfections could have significant implications on what we have known so far about immunity to covid-19.”
Pandori points out that even people who have recovered should follow guidelines on social distancing, mask use and hand washing.
Almost a year after the start of the outbreak, the scientific community is still trying to understand how the coronavirus acts and evolves and how immunity to it is achieved.
Just a similar case so far
Can everyone become immune? Even people who had very mild symptoms? How long does the immunity?
Image source, AFP
Will we all become immune to covid-19 one day?
These are important questions to answer in order to understand how the virus will affect us in the long term, and they can change the concepts of a possible vaccine and herd or herd immunity.
So far, reinfection seems to be uncommon: It has happened rarely in the more than 37 million confirmed cases.
The reports came from Hong Kong, Belgium and the Netherlands and were about infections that were no more damaging than the former.
Alone younot in Ecuador It was similar to the case of this American patient, but the South American did not need to undergo hospital treatment.
However, it is still too early to reach a conclusion, and the history of other types of coronavirus suggests that immunity is expected to decline.
But as countries go through a second wave of the coronavirus, we may start to get clearer answers.
“Very worrying”
With what was known so far, the second wave was expected to be milder, as the body was supposed to learn to fight the virus the first time.
Image source, fake images
Experts say that even people who have recovered from coronavirus should follow guidelines about social distancing, face masks and hand washing.
It is not yet known why the American patient developed more severe symptoms after the second infection, but it is presumed that he may have been exposed to a viral load mayor.
It is also possible that the immune response you had at the beginning made the second response not as strong.
This has happened in diseases such as dengue, when antibodies produced in response to one strain of the virus cause problems if they are infected with another strain.
Professor Paul Hunter of the University of East Anglia in England said the study is “very worrying“due to the short time between the two infections and the severity of the second.
“Given the fact that more than 37 million people have had the infection to date, we would have expected to have heard of many more incidents if such early reinfections with serious diseases were common,” he explained.
“It is too early to say with certainty what the implications of these findings are for any immunization program,” he acknowledged.
“But the findings reinforce the point that we still don’t know enough about the immune response to this infection.”
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