Covid -19 immunity from antibodies may last only months
A new paper suggests that after people are infected with the novel coronavirus, their natural immunity to the virus could decline within months. The paper suggests that antibody responses may start to decline 20 to 30 days after Covid -19 symptoms emerge. The study is yet to be published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.
Researchers from the UK wrote in the paper, “We show that IgM and IgA binding responses decline from 20-30 days.” The study also found that the severity of Covid-19 symptoms can determine the magnitude of the antibody response. Researchers of the study collected samples from 65 patients with confirmed Covid-19 up to 94 days after they started showing symptoms and from 31 health care workers who had antibody tests every one to two weeks between March and June.
Lack of immunity to the vaccine is no big news. The World Health Organisation since early on in the pandemic, has warned that people already infected with Covid-19 are not necessarily immune from getting the virus again. The researchers wrote in the paper, “This study has important implications when considering protection against re-infection with SARS-CoV-2 and the durability of vaccine protection.”
Associate professor in the University of Leeds School of Medicine in the UK, Stephen Griffins released a written statement on the issue. While the paper is yet to be peer-reviewed, Griffins said “the importance of this study is clear and the research has been rigorously undertaken.”
“This work confirms that protective antibody responses in those infected with SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, appear to wane rapidly. Whilst longer lasting in those with more severe disease, this is still only a matter of months,” Griffins said.
He added, “Similar short-lived responses are seen against other human coronaviruses that predominantly cause only mild illness, meaning that we can be re-infected as time goes by and outbreaks can adopt seasonality. With the more serious, sometimes fatal, outcomes of SARS-CoV-2, this is troubling indeed. Vaccines in development will either need to generate stronger and longer lasting protection compared to natural infection, or they may need to be given regularly.”
