Anykštė fell ill with coronavirus three times: doctors explained how it was possible

D. Žiogelis said that he found this person while examining the lists of unvaccinated Anykščiai people. According to D. Žiogelis, there are several Anykščiai people who have suffered twice, but the record holder, a person who has suffered COVID-19 three times, is the only one.

For what reasons can a person contract the coronavirus more than once, even several times?

Some diseases seriously interfere with the development of immunity even after illness.

Arvydas Ambrozaitis, a professor and infectologist at the Vilnius University School of Medicine, said this could happen due to a very weak immune system, which produces antibodies slowly, does not provide sufficient protection and is unable to defend itself against the disease.

“People over 65 have a weakened immune system. Also at risk for poor immunity are those with oncohematological diseases such as blood cancer, otherwise various oncological diseases, immunodeficiency conditions, diabetes and the like.

It may be because this person’s immune system is very weak. Such a person should definitely get vaccinated to help their body build immunity. Or maybe it was the man whose vaccination was forbidden by children. This is usually the case now. The elderly person is offered to bring the vaccine home and children are persuaded not to get vaccinated, ”said prof. A. Ambrozaitis.

Another interlocutor, Professor Saulius Čaplinskas, a specialist in infectious diseases, said that this person probably has significant problems with the immune system.

“It is difficult to say if it is due to some chronic disease, or to genetic traits, perhaps due to lifestyle. But it is clear that not everyone develops the immune system in the same way and not everyone maintains it in the same way. Below is a specific example.

In an AIDS patient with immunodeficiency, the active period of the coronavirus lasted more than 200 days. During that time, the virus mutated 32 times in his body. Vaccines slow down the spread of the virus, which means that the virus has less chance of mutating, ”said prof. S. Čaplinskas.

The highest immunity, according to prof. According to S. Čaplinskas, a person acquires after getting sick and then getting vaccinated, but being sick is the greatest risk of a bad result. This requires vaccinations so that we can protect ourselves with the least risk. After vaccination, the antibody titer increases 10 times after vaccination.

However, after illness and vaccination, immunity fades and, according to the interlocutor, it is very wrong to think that one dose of the vaccine is enough for life.

New strains are more contagious, so available antibodies may not be enough

“We are now seeing more recurring infections than in the early years of the pandemic, which is not necessarily surprising.” health.clevelandclinic.org said Dr. Frank Esper, a specialist in pediatric infectious diseases.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that COVID-19 reinfection remains rare but possible.

Dr. F. Esper examined the causes of reinfection and presented 4 main aspects of why this could happen.

First, the pandemic has been going on for some time and several hundred million people who have been infected with the coronavirus are now well recovered. And immunity fades over time, so infections can escalate a second time.

Second, vaccine-induced immunity also decreases over time. For people who got vaccinated last winter, immunity may already be quite weak.

Third: we ourselves have stopped being so careful, because trips and big events are back, the days of mass vigil have passed, in which we all responsibly wear masks, wash our hands and keep our distance.

Fourth, the new variants of COVID-19 are much more contagious than those that occurred during the first wave of coronavirus. “These variants can overcome some of the existing immunities that people have developed during vaccination or a previous infection,” Dr. F. Esper explained to health.clevelandclinic.org.