A young, healthy woman who got Covid-19 during the first wave and built up antibodies against it, became infected again in September. De Standaard writes this on the basis of a Belgian study that has yet to pass an official peer review.
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Virology professor Kevin Ariën of the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) confirms the news and states that the case study may show that the number of antibodies decreases relatively quickly after an infection.
According to Ariën, this is probably the first described case worldwide in which an intact immune system was established in the infected person and there was a good immune response after the first infection. “In previous cases of reinfection, the immune response was not measured or was not working optimally,” he says. “This case is at least reminiscent of other coronaviruses, both mild and SARS or MERS. There too, we saw immunity quickly sink below a so-called ‘critical threshold’. ”
The reinfected woman, a healthcare provider in a Belgian hospital, still had antibodies when she became infected for the second time, but that was apparently insufficient. “Either having antibodies was not enough or the numbers had fallen below that critical threshold,” says Ariën.
The case study may prove very important. On the one hand, it may again be an argument against obtaining herd immunity, on the other hand, it may need to be taken into account in vaccine research. For example, a vaccine that offers very good protection against Covid-19 in the short term may not work for very long.
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