Are you protected once you’ve been infected with Corona? So far this has not been guaranteed. A new study gives hope to those who have recovered.
St. Louis / Munich – Just don’t infect! That has been the most important thing for many when it comes to Corona in Germany * and around the world in recent months. A Corona*-Infection can have dire consequences, in the worst case fatal. But now there is a big ray of hope for those who have recovered: According to a latest study, they can never be infected with Covid-19 for their entire life *.
With a mild corona course: Lifelong virus protection, according to researchers, likely
Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis (USA) assume that the body’s own protection against the virus will last a lifetime once you have survived it. The only condition: it must have been a mild course.
The study published in the journal Nature comes to the result that patients with mild corona courses still had antibodies almost a year later. The scientists conclude that this protective shield lasts a lifetime. The immune cells that produce the antibodies would decrease, but they would never go away completely.
Coronavirus: Antibodies do not go away after infection
“It is normal for the antibodies to drop after an acute infection, but they don’t drop to zero, they reach a plateau,” explains Professor Ali Ellebedy, one of the authors and professor of pathology, immunology and molecular microbiology. The researchers took blood and bone marrow from a total of 77 recovered patients who had mild corona courses.
The result is astonishing: even eleven months later, the antibodies were detectable in the blood. These were also present in the bone marrow. “They don’t share. They are dormant, just sit in the bone marrow and produce antibodies. They have been doing this since the infection cleared and they will continue to do so indefinitely, ”Ellebedy said.
But what about people with severe corona courses? According to the researchers, these could have less protection. “Inflammation plays a big role in severe Covid-19 courses, and too much inflammation can lead to faulty immune responses,” explains Jackson Turner, professor of pathology and immunology. But he also says: Some people get really sick because they have a lot of viruses in their body, which leads to a good immune response.
To be sure, their study must be repeated with patients with moderate and severe courses, according to the research team. The same pressing question arises with vaccinated people – do they also have lifelong protection? The scientists want to get to the bottom of this question in a further study. – *Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.
Rubric picture: © Marijan Murat / dpa
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