[ad_1]
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said health officials this week are beginning to see “several cases” reported as reinfections.
“Well documented cases,” he said, “of people who were infected, after a relatively short period, measured between weeks and months, come back, are exposed and are infected again.”
“Therefore, you must be careful not to be completely ‘immune’,” Fauci said.
While it is possible to become infected with the virus again, there are still questions that scientists are trying to answer, including who is most likely to be reinfected and how long the antibodies protect people from another infection.
Scientists are study how long antibodies last
Researchers at the University of Arizona found that antibodies that protect against infection can last for at least five to seven months after a Covid-19 infection.
With the pandemic less than a year old, it will likely take a while for scientists to get a clear picture of immunity.
“That being said, we know that people who were infected with the first SARS coronavirus, which is the virus most similar to SARS-CoV-2, still have immunity 17 years after infection. If SARS-CoV-2 is like the first First, we expect the antibodies to last at least two years, and it would be unlikely that something much shorter would happen, “Deepta Bhattacharya, an immunobiologist at the University of Arizona School of Medicine, previously told CNN.
Other studies, one in Massachusetts and one in Canada, supported the idea of long-lasting immunity.
What is unclear is how second infections could affect any Covid-19 vaccine. The Nevada man experienced more critical symptoms during his second infection, while the Hong Kong man had no obvious symptoms during his reinfection.
The severity of the disease could affect the antibodies.
There is something else that researchers have begun to notice: People who have a harder fight with the disease tend to have a stronger immune response.
“There is a difference between people who are asymptomatic, who had a very mild infection, there seems to be a slightly higher number of people who have no detectable antibodies,” says Swaminathan of the WHO. “But almost everyone who has moderate to severe disease has antibodies.”
Bhattacharya, from Arizona, echoed that finding.
“People who were sampled from the ICU had higher levels of antibodies than people who had milder disease,” he said, adding that he doesn’t yet know what that will mean for long-term immunity.
CNN’s Maggie Fox contributed to this report.
[ad_2]