A preprint from a study suggests that the antibodies built up in your body in response to a coronavirus infection could last for only months, which means that survivors of COVID-19 are at risk of contracting the disease again.
The study, published online July 11It has not been certified by peer review, which means it may contain errors. Conducted by researchers at King’s College London and the University of Kent, the study examined antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
Using serology tests, doctors have been able to detect antibodies against the coronavirus in patients approximately 10 to 15 days after being infected with the coronavirus and even after the virus was no longer present in their bodies. Public health researchers have tried to use this information to determine how many people may have been infected with the coronavirus without showing any symptoms.
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But the new study found that the amount of antibodies detected in some patients decreased to an almost initial level 60 days after symptoms appeared.
“We suggest that this transitional [antibody] the response is a characteristic shared by both a SARS-CoV-2 infection causing low severity of the disease and circulating seasonal coronaviruses that are associated with common colds, “the authors said.” This study has important implications when considering generalized serological tests, [antibody] protection against reinfection with SARS-CoV-2 and the durability of vaccine protection. “
If the results of this study are confirmed and validated, this could mean that coronavirus survivors could be reinfected again. It’s not just bad news individually, but also from a public health point of view. Some experts have suggested that herd immunity, which is when the majority of the population is immune to an infectious disease, could end the coronavirus pandemic even before a vaccine is developed.
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Sweden tested this theory, remaining open even when neighboring countries closed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Since then, the country has suffered a death toll of 5,536. In neighboring Norway and Finland, there have been 253 and 329 deaths, respectively. Cases have recently started to decline, but without immunity, another wave is still possible.
But antibodies are not the only way that the human body can fight disease. In a comment on prepress, Donald R. Forsdyke, a professor in the Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences at Queen’s University, noted that there are other forms of immune responses.
“Antibody responses are an example of humoral immunity, and the authors correctly point out that there is also T-cell mediated cellular immunity, which they have not studied. They do not clarify the distinction between primary and secondary immune responses, whether humoral or cellular.” said.
Humoral immunity is concerned with bodily fluids, whereas cellular immunity occurs within infected cells and is mediated by T lymphocytes. Meanwhile, the primary immune response is how your body reacts when it first comes into contact with the virus. time, while the secondary response is what happens when it comes into contact with the body a second time.
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