What you need to know about COVID-19 reinfection – The Hill

In recent weeks, health professionals have been particularly interested in investigating the reinfection rate of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, especially in the context of new Omicron variants compared to previous variants. Early in the pandemic, reinfections have been occasionally reported. Health officials say they can become more common in new variants and that early reinfections can occur more often, with a second infection within 90 days of the first infection. I am concerned.

Reinfection may become more common

Data from previous waves It suggests recovery from previous infections protected from infections between alpha and delta waves.

What does this really mean?

Both previous infections and vaccinations help prepare the immune system for future attacks by the same or similar viruses. The body has antibodies that counterattack more quickly, which helps completely prevent the development of severe illnesses and symptoms. If future reinfection does not cause symptoms, it is less likely to be detected and counted as a reinfection.

There are now signs that reinfection may become more common in new variants.recently Weekly morbidity and mortality reports From the (MMWR) CDC, the agency details 10 people re-infected during the Omicron wave that occurred within 90 days of the previous infection during the delta wave. Researchers sequenced the entire genome of the virus collected from individuals and confirmed that they were infected with different mutants each time.

The median age at the time of initial infection of the patients was 11 years, and the number of days between infections was 23-87 days. Eight of these patients were under the age of 18, one lived in a long-term care facility and the other was a medical institution. worker. Seven of them were unvaccinated, one was fully vaccinated, but was not yet qualified as a booster.

CDC officials have emphasized in the report that these 10 early reinfection cases are not representative of the US population and should not be out of context.

Why this is happening

These early reinfections can be the result of differences between variants. Some Omicron strains have mutations in specific parts of the genetic code of peplomers. This is the part that helps the virus invade cells in the body.

There is some evidence that mutations are large enough to make immunity from previous infections less useful in preventing reinfection. Tuliode Oliveira and collaborators at Stellenbosch University have discovered in South Africa: Later versions of omicron, BA.4 and BA.5 can break through immunity from previous infections of the original Omicron BA.1. This rarely happened if you had hybrid immunity, which is a combination of natural infection and vaccination.

In a study published earlier this week Chemistry, Another team of researchers will elaborate on this phenomenon and the various combinations of previous immunity and omicron immunity. The team found that even with previous Omicron infections, they were not adequately protected against future Omicron infections. “When Omicron began to fly around the country, people kept saying it was okay, which would improve people’s immunity,” said Rosemary Boyton, one of the research authors at Imperial College London. increase Parents.. “What we’re saying is that it’s not an immune booster.”

Long-term concerns

Reinfection is a health concern, even if it has not been consistently detected and the rate of severe illness or hospitalization remains relatively low. Health scientists are worried that more people may develop long-term COVID. This may be defined as a symptom that lasts for weeks or months after the infection is resolved. Symptoms include fatigue, brain fog, and damage to lung tissue.

There is a lack of consistent collated data on how many people are currently suffering from long COVIDs after infection, and scientists are still learning about their health effects and range of symptoms.Recent studies published in Nature medicine We focused on long COVIDs from infections in vaccinated people. This is what researchers call a breakthrough infection. They found that some people with breakthrough infections showed at least one symptom after 6 months.

Scientists are learning more and more about Omicron and its variations over time. And at least one researcher believes that it is not a subset of SARS-CoV-2, but is sufficiently different to be considered a virus of its own.Duke’s Linfa Wang-National University of Singapore’s NUS Medical College said: Chemistry, “Should be called SARS-3.” But for most of us, we need to wait for what develops with respect to Omicron and other new variants in order to better understand what it means for us and our daily lives. ..

Published June 17, 2022