How bad is it to get infected several times with the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus? Can Covid-19 diseases permanently change the immune system? Numerous scientists are investigating these and other questions about the late effects of Corona, but often still disagree on the basis of the data available so far, the specialist magazine “Nature” reported on Wednesday.
A good three years after the start of the corona pandemic, experts estimated that the majority of the world’s population had already been infected with the virus at least once. In the coming decades, however, it is likely and inevitable that everyone will fall ill with Covid-19 again and again. Is that cause for concern?
How dangerous are renewed corona infections?
Several studies from different countries have shown that the immune system is usually prepared for reinfection and can fight off the virus better. As a result, the infection subsides two days earlier on average, and the symptoms are usually rather mild. The Risk Severe or fatal disease progression is significantly lower in the case of reinfections than in the case of initial infections.
Nevertheless, renewed infections are not without risk, especially for people who, for example due to previous illnesses, had a more severe course than most people when they were first infected. Caution is still required for this group, even though their risk of severe courses from vaccinations and previous illnesses has now fallen.
According to another, this also applies to those who have been vaccinated and those who have recovered from mild courses Study: Having Covid-19 more than once is worse than having it just once. However, it is questionable whether this applies to the general population, since only older men were examined in the US study. The researchers observed that reinfection in this group increased the risk of severe courses and long Covid.
Data from Great Britain, on the other hand, indicated that with repeated infections the risk of contracting Long Covid decreases – at least in adults; in children the risk is similar to that of the initial infection. Another study shows that in patients who have already developed Long Covid after the initial infection, reinfection with the coronavirus intensifies the symptoms.
Does Corona change the immune system?
According to the report by some researchers, “Nature”, that Covid-related diseases could permanently damage the immune system, which could make people more susceptible to other illnesses such as flu. Some studies that have found various changes in the immune system of patients in the weeks or months after initial infections provide evidence of this. How serious these changes are, however, is often not entirely clear. Other scientists therefore do not (yet) see enough evidence for the general hypothesis of long-term immune damage. It has also not been clearly clarified whether these changes caused by the corona virus also occur in other infectious diseases that are researched far less intensively than Covid-19.
2023-04-27 21:57:37
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