It followed the 122 strong crew of a fishing boat working in the Pacific off the coast of Seattle, Washington. All were tested for both antibodies and the virus before and after. An outbreak occurred on the ship and 104 people were infected – an attack rate of 85 percent.
However, only those without pre-existing antibodies caught the virus. Of the three crew members who had already been exposed to the disease and had antibodies before leaving the boat, none showed evidence of reinfection.
Professor Danny Altmann, from the Department of Immunology and Inflammation at Hammersmith Hospital, Imperial College, said: “Although this is a small study, it offers a remarkable, truly, human experiment at a time when we are short of hard-line, formal “, proving that neutralizing antibodies really do provide protection against re-infection. In short, this is good news.”
While the findings are welcome news, important questions remain about the human immune response to the virus – namely how long such antibodies last. Most studies show that they start to fade after only a few months.
However, there is mounting evidence that T cells and B cells, often referred to as “memory cells”, provide longer lasting protection.
It was widely reported last month that researchers at Karolinska University Hospital and University Hospital of Wales found that people suffering from asymptomatic or mild cases of Covid-19 may have long-term T-cell immunity to severe infection.
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