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In April, there were reports from South Korea of patients recovering from COVID-19 who had reinfected. The WHO said this is not a reactivation of the disease, however – positive coronavirus test results in people who have recovered are linked to the expulsion of dead cells through the lungs. This is a form of recovery, not a sign of a reinfection with the coronavirus.
Patients have not been reinfected in South Korea
In April, we wrote about the reactivation of the coronavirus in patients from South Korea – experts were then unable to determine the cause of this phenomenon. However, the latest reports confirmed by the WHO shed new light on the situation. It turns out that the positive results of coronavirus tests so far in people who previously recovered are not the result of reinfection or reactivation of the coronavirus.
Recent research suggests that when patients recover, they shed dead lung cells that have been damaged by the disease as part of the healing process. Some patients have tested positive for coronavirus at this stage of their recovery. As reported by the CNA station, also the Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) believe that in patients suspected of reinfection the results were false positive. Tests have found patients with coronavirus fragments that do not pose a risk of infection.
However, WHO reports that for patients recovering from the virus in whom tests have failed to detect the virus but have returned positive after weeks, more detailed testing is still needed. Only systematization of the obtained data will allow to determine how long people recovering from COVID-19 can get rid of active viruses from the body and whether these viruses can be transmitted to other people.
Research on the coronavirus has shown that the bodies of infected people accumulate antibodies an average of one week after the start of the infection or the first symptoms. It is still unknown, however, whether the immune system is boosted enough to fend off another coronavirus attack. If this happens, it is also unclear how long such immunity lasts.
Once infected, some viruses, including measles, develop lifelong immunity. In the case of coronaviruses like SARS, immunity has been confirmed to last from several months to several years. To the answer regarding human resistance to SARS-CoV-2 we still have to wait.
At Medonet Market you can buy the Home COVID-19 Ag SGTi-flex cassette test, which will allow you to determine if you have coronavirus in your body.
Have a question about the coronavirus? Send them to the following address: [email protected]. You will find a daily updated list of answers HERE: Coronavirus – frequently asked questions and answers.
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