Can a Coronavirus Patients Get Reinfected?
Unanswered questions about immunity and recovery
Scientists all over the world are engaged in research about the outcomes of COVID-19. The global pandemic on one hand has troubled the whole world and on the other hand, it has raised so many new questions about the future. What happens to the patient who gets recovered from COVID-19? Can they get infected again? Are they immune forever? How long does the immunity last? Can a patient get reinfected by coronavirus after once getting recovered from it?
Questions like these are the topics that are surrounding the researchers all over the world but the results and conclusions are far from near at the moment. Such questions require long term scientific studies. It's still the first stage of the coronavirus pandemic and it may last for upcoming months. Then there will come the stage 2 of corona and studies which will answer all these questions. Antibodies test, vaccines tests will all tell the answer to these questions.
What happens to the patient who gets recovered from COVID ? Can they get infected again ? Are they immune forever ? How long does the immunity last ?
Patients in China and South Korea Got Reinfected
Looking at the current evidence, the situation seems quite tricky. A couple of coronavirus patients in China who were normal after their isolation period and had the test negative got the infection and symptoms again in the upcoming month. This is quite weird for anyone who has just recovered from the infection.
Another interesting scenario happened in South Korea when around 116 recovered patients got reinfected. The usual standard to declare a patient negative is taking two negative test results in 24-Hours. But still, 116 patients got reinfected. It's still under investigation how the viral load increased again¹.
Positive Signs as Covid-19 couldn’t infect the experimental monkeys again
The positive news says that the Chinese have tried the infection on Rhesus Monkey and the monkeys showed signs of immunity after re-infected with the virus. Similar outbreaks like this, the Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) infections had lasting immunity. The SARS Virus had immunity among the patients up to 3 years and MERS patient had the immunity lasted upon 1 year. The answer to all these questions is not yet certain and it will require some detailed studies to find out the answers. Let's wait for a while to get some more research done.²
Anti-bodies tests have been initiated around the world to figure out how long the immunity of the coronavirus survivors will remain. It may need volunteers participating in the anti-body tests every month or every year to measure the amount of coronavirus antibodies in the blood.
There is currently no evidence that a patient who gets infected once won’t get the infection ever again.
No Concrete & Conclusive Evidence For Now
Time will tell how long immunity lasts in a coronavirus patient after he gets recovered. For that purpose, periodic antibodies tests are required on patients who recover from the Coronavirus infection. Periodic tests will be done on a regular basis; monthly, 6-monthly and yearly to check the level of antibodies after a particular time period. This will help in understanding how long the immunity lasts against Coronavirus.
Don’t listen to the people saying that once you get coronavirus, you won’t get infected again. There is no scientific evidence to back such an argument for now. Until then Please Stay Home and Stay Safe. Protect yourself and your families.
Originally published at https://urpharmacist.com on April 19, 2020.
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