Getting COVID-19 Again Is Highly Unlikely, Reassure Medical Experts
Antibodies declining after a few months of recovering from COVID-19 is normal
With the spread of Coronavirus still on the rise, herd immunity is sought from the virus more than ever before.
Several reassurances of the same have surfaced, with reports indicating strong anti-bodies being generated in those infected by the pathogen.
AFP
There is, however, a big doubt lingering over the pursuit. What if those infected by it once get the COVID-19 again?
Many accounts have alarmed researchers on the question over time. If found to be true, this would put the dream of achieving herd immunity from the virus to the trash can of broken ones. But medical researchers assure that this is not the case.
Many researchers are of the thought that the SARS-CoV2 virus is behaving like any other. It triggers the human immune system to generate immune molecules or antibodies. These are the body¡¯s first defense mechanism against the pathogen in case it manages to enter the body again.
(Representative Image: Reuters)
Recent reports indicate that the levels of these COVID-19 antibodies decline in two to three months. While that is not much of a reassuring news, it is a perfectly normal phenomenon, says Dr. Michael Mina, an immunologist at Harvard University, as cited in a NY Times report.
Dr. Mina further says, ¡°This is a famous dynamic of how antibodies develop after infection: They go very, very high, and then they come back down."
COVID-19 reinfection fears
Citing experts, the report mentions that though it is possible for the coronavirus to strike an infected person twice, but it is ¡°highly unlikely¡± that it would happen in a short window or that it will make the person sicker the second time.
Instead, the more likely scenario is that some people have an extended course of infection. This is when the virus spreads in an infected body slowly, typically taking weeks to months after the first exposure.
Another possible explanation for incidents of COVID-19 reinfection is that the patients might not fully recover from the virus in the first go. The virus may secrete itself into certain parts of the body and then resurface at a later time. Tests can sometimes fail to detect the virus in the body in such cases due to low count of the virus. Ebola virus is known to operate in a similar manner.
An example of this came to light when several reports of patients being reinfected by the virus surfaced in South Korea. The report by NY Times clears that even though almost half of the people had symptoms at the second test, ¡°researchers were unable to grow live virus from any of the samples.¡± Those infected had not even spread the virus to others.
(Representative Image: Reuters)
¡°It was pretty solid epidemiological and virological evidence that reinfection was not happening, at least in those people,¡± said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia University in New York.
COVID-19 good news
What is reassuring in this aspect is that the antibodies produced by the pathogen are not the only form of protection against the virus. The coronavirus also induces the production of memory T-cells in the body that can kill the coronavirus.
¡°If those are maintained, and especially if they¡¯re maintained within the lung and the respiratory tract, then I think they can do a pretty good job of stopping an infection from spreading,¡± said Akiko Iwasaki in the report, an immunologist at Yale University.
To sum up the discussion, the report mentions that most people exposed to the coronavirus develop antibodies that can destroy the virus. ¡°The more severe the symptoms, the stronger the response,¡± says the report.
The fear of resurgence of the virus in an infected person has only been fuelled by recent studies that mention a drop in antibodies after months. But that is true for any other virus and the fact that these antibodies stabilise after dropping to a low is much reassuring in the pursuit of developing herd immunity.
