Corona Virus: Can you get infected twice?



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Scientists from around the world are working to find a vaccine.

Some patients recover from Kovid-19, undergo all corona virus tests, but then test positive for Kovid-19.

Corona virus infections, as in the case of the common cold, generally lead to the patient acquiring immunity. What is different about this virus then?

The man of the 1970s is an early example among patients who presented surprising and troubling findings to doctors.

He was placed in isolation at a Tokyo hospital in February after being diagnosed with a coronary virus.

The man recovered and returned to a more normal life, even using public transport, the Japanese NHK wrote. But after a few days, he was no longer well and he had a fever.

Boris Johnson

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UK strategy to combat the virus crown is mass immunization

The man returned to the hospital and to his and the doctor’s surprise, he learned that he was again positive for the virus.

Although not the only such case in Japan, the apparent recurrence or recurrence of the crown virus in patients occurs only in a minor but significant number of cases. But why?

Return of the virus.

Luis Enhuanes, a virologist at the Spanish National Biotechnology Center (CSIC), told the BBC that at least 14 percent of the patients who tested negative for Kovid-19 were positive again.

He believes this is not a secondary infection but a case of a “returned virus”.

“My explanation, among many other possible explanations, is that, in general, this corona virus effectively immunizes the population, but the immune response in individuals is not very strong,” says Enhuanes.

“When the immune response slows down, the virus, which remains in a reservoir in the body, manages to return.”

The virus can remain in the body.

Some viruses can remain in the body for three months or even longer.

proof

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About 14 percent of patients who recovered later tested positive for coronavirus

“When one becomes a positive zero [pozitivan, pa kasnije negativan]”It is assumed that he has acquired immunity, so the virus should not reappear,” says Enhuanes.

“But there may still be some infectious agents in the body’s tissues that are not protected by the body’s defense system, like some other organs.”

But there is something about Kovid-19 that puzzles scientists: It is a short period after which a patient turns positive again after recovering.

Confused scientists

We know that immunity works differently for different diseases.

In the case of measles, a single childhood vaccine is usually enough to give someone immunity for life.

However, some health authorities have suggested that people of a certain age may be safer if they receive a repeated injection with a more modern vaccine than the original.

Why vaccines are important and how they work.
The British Broadcasting Corporation

There are other viruses against which vaccines are not as effective, so we must increase the doses at regular intervals.

And there are other vaccines, like the flu or the common flu, that must be administered every year because viruses mutate.

Still trying to figure it out

But because Kovid-19 is a new virus, scientists are still trying to find an explanation for the short period between the two infections.

Isidoro Martínez, a researcher at the Carlos Third Health Institute in Madrid, says that although it is possible for someone to become infected with the virus again, it is strange that with Kovid-19 it happens so quickly after having been negative.

Sterilization at a station in Spain.

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“If there is no permanent immunity, he will become infected again in the next epidemic in a year or two. That is normal,” Martinez told the BBC.

“But it’s rare for someone to get the same virus again after it’s cured.” Furthermore, as far as we know, this corona virus does not change as much as the influenza virus, “he added.

Temporary takeoff

His explanation is similar to that of Enhuanes.

“People who tested positive for the Kovid-19 test again, who have already tested negative, may experience some form of temporary shedding of the infection before it is definitively cleared.”

But both researchers caution that more studies are needed to better understand Kovid-19.

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) told the BBC that “this is a new virus from which we learn something new every day”, so it is not possible to explain these reinfection cases with certainty.

But science is trying to find the answer that will help governments make decisions about what health measures to take.

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