Coronavirus Explained: Immunity and Re-infection, what do we know

As the world continues to fight COVID-19 pandemic, few questions remain unanswered and unclear regarding the true nature of this virus. Are we going to gain immunity to the coronavirus like many other? How soon would the vaccines be available? Why is it taking so long for vaccines to be developed? What would be the long term effects of this virus and is re-infection possible?

 

This “mystery” virus is leaving the nations confused, people anxious and economies battered.

 

Is re-infection from coronavirus possible?

 

This is still unclear as we are in the ‘primary phase’ of the infection. However, we do know that the antibodies developed in our bodies post infection will provide us immunity, but for how long is still unknown.

 

Dr. Ben Killingley, Acute medicine and infectious disease consultant at University College London Hospital said, “We know from ‘normal’ coronavirus studies done in the past you can infect people after about a year following an initial infection.”

 

A detailed scrutiny is required to know in detail about the signs of reinfection.

 

Was South Korea an example of reinfection?

It was a major uproar and concern among experts when South Korea reported some cases coming back positive after they were recovered from coronavirus. Further tests confirmed that they were “false positive”.

 

The PCR tests done are basically detecting the genetic material or RNA of the virus present, not necessarily “active virus”. The PCR test does not reveal whether the virus is active or inactive or infectious.

 

Why people are demonstrating a varied range of symptoms to coronavirus?

 

The most confusing part of the COVID-19 infection is the variety of symptoms being displayed by patients and to varied degrees of severity. While some people get better after few days of fever, some experience lasting fever with breathlessness leading to the need of hospitalization for oxygen supply.

 

Doctors suggest that this due to the different immune response of every body towards infection.

 

Some people with mild symptoms have also reported of lingering symptoms for several weeks.

 

However, what would be the long term implications of the coronavirus infection will have to be studied.

 

Prolonged duration of symptoms can cause inflammation of lungs with eventual scarring of lung tissue, doctors fear.

 

Doctors say that we are still in the early phase of this pandemic and what effects it would have on the bodies once the chronicity is reached, is to studied over time.

 

Are there chances of virus to lie dormant in the body?

 

Experts suggest otherwise. With no evidence to serve this hypothesis, doctors say that the nature of coronavirus is very different from herpes virus that shows behaviour of dormancy and reactivation.

 

The current trend of COVID-19 pandemic across nations indicates towards a long fight. Meanwhile, the WHO and doctors suggest to keep practicing social distancing and general hygiene and etiquettes to keep the probability of getting infected to bare minimum. Vaccines are under research and development still in trial phases. Till then watching out our steps and staying cautious is the smartest way to go.

Source: 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/24/explainer-what-do-we-now-know-about-covid-19-and-can-you-get-it-twice