SIC Notes | Covid-19. Infection does not guarantee young people’s immunity from reinfection

A study published Thursday in the scientific journal The Lancet Respiratory Medicine reported that new coronavirus infection provides some protection for young people, but it does not guarantee complete immunity against reinfection.

The investigation, which was based on data from more than 3,000 healthy North American Marines, most of them men between the ages of 18 and 20, concluded that even if antibodies develop after recovery from COVID-19, it is recommended that you receive The vaccine is to stimulate the immune response and avoid reinfection.

For the study, which was conducted between May and November 2020, recruits were quarantined for four weeks before returning to training, taking tests to detect antibodies and infections, and filling out a questionnaire about Covid-19 symptoms, among other medical data.

According to the investigation, of the “ observed ” type, 19 young people (10%) out of 189 who had previously overcome Covid-19 were infected again, while in a group of those who did not contract the virus, the number of recruits reached 2,247 1079 later, nearly half.

The authors of the investigation found that young men who had never been infected with the new coronavirus were five times more likely to be infected than those who had already contracted the disease, even though these were not fully immune.

The researchers explained that young men who were infected again had fewer antibodies than those who did not catch the virus again, and that their viral load was “only” ten times less than recruits who had been infected for the first time.

According to the researchers, this means that some infected people can transmit the virus, although it is a conclusion, they warn, that requires more research to confirm it.

“As vaccination campaigns gain momentum, it is important to remember that despite previous COVID-19 infection, young people can be infected with the virus again and can pass it on to other people,” one of the authors says in a statement. The study, Stuart Silveon, from Ica School of Medicine, Mount Sinai, in the United States.