[ad_1]
Those who recover from coronavirus infection have immunity for at least five to six months, according to several preliminary studies, and although re-infections to earlier strains were rare, newer mutated strains pose a risk of contracting the virus again. new virus, according to scientists.
One researcher even pinned a recent outbreak of cases in Manaus, Brazil, a city in the northwestern Amazon, to re-infections fueled by a variant strain called P.1, by NPR.
While research suggests the city has already reached the threshold of herd immunity, with more than 70% of the population infected last fall, the region’s health system is now collapsing amid a increased infections and decreased oxygen supplies.
UNITED STATES SWORDS TO HELP WHO IN CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE: FAUCI
The strain was recently reported and scientists say it was circulating in Manaus in December. This strain shares several mutations with a variant initially detected in South Africa – which would have “escaped” the neutralizing power of antibodies in convalescent plasma treatment. A team of researchers tested convalescent plasma from coronavirus patients against the 501Y.V2 strain, and 48% of 44 samples “had no detectable neutralizing activity,” the study authors wrote. The paper also confirmed the risk of reinfection, writing, “These data highlight the prospect of reinfection with antigenically distinct variants and may herald reduced efficacy of current peak-based vaccines.”
“We know you can be re-infected even with the same version of the virus,” Ravi Gupta, a virologist at the University of Cambridge, told NPR, although it is too early to say how often re-infections can occur.
Last summer, Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO COVID-19 Technical Officer, addressed the reinfection after the first documented case in Hong Kong, saying, “It doesn’t mean it’s happening, you know, a lot. We know it is possible. But it’s something we knew was possible based on our experience with other human coronaviruses. “
GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The case involved a man returning to Hong Kong from a trip to Spain when researchers at the University of Hong Kong said he tested positive for the virus during an airport screening, according to Japan. Times. Using genomic sequencing, the researchers could have detected that the patient was infected with two different strains of the coronavirus.
Marcus Vinicius Lacerda, an infectious disease physician at Fundação de Medicina Tropical Doutor Heitor Vieira Dourado in Manaus, told NPR he believes re-infections are fueling the ongoing epidemic in the Brazilian city.
However, researchers are working to confirm the unknowns behind the variant strains, such as their impact on the efficacy of recently approved vaccines, therapies and virus transmissibility.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
[ad_2]
Source link