Those who recover from coronavirus infection have immunity for at least five to six months, according to several previous studies, and although reinfections of previous strains are rare, new mutant strains pose a risk of contracting the new virus, scientists say .
A researcher even identified a recent increase in cases in Manaus, Brazil, a city in the northwest of the Amazon, for reinfections fed by a variant strain called P.1, by NPR.
Although research suggests that the city has already reached the herd’s immunity limit, with more than 70% of the population infected last fall, the area’s health system is collapsing amid an increase in infections and a reduction in supply of oxygen.
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The strain was recently released and scientists say it was already circulating in Manaus in December. This strain shares several mutations with a variant initially detected in South Africa – which was said to “escape” the neutralizing power of antibodies in the treatment of convalescent plasma. A team of researchers tested convalescent plasma from patients with coronavirus against the 501Y.V2 strain, and 48% of the 44 samples “had no detectable neutralization activity,” wrote the study authors. The article supported the risk of reinfection as well, writing: “These data highlight the prospect of reinfection with antigenically distinct variants and may herald the reduced efficacy of current spike-based vaccines.”
“We know that you can be infected again even with the same version of the virus,” Ravi Gupta, a virologist at the University of Cambridge, told NPR, although it is too early to say how often reinfections can occur.
Last summer, Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical leader for COVID-19, addressed reinfection after the first documented case in Hong Kong, saying, “It doesn’t mean it’s happening, you know, a lot. We know it’s possible. But it is something that we knew could be possible based on our experience with other human coronaviruses. “
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The case involved a man who was returning to Hong Kong after a trip to Spain when researchers at the University of Hong Kong said he tested positive for the virus during an examination at the airport, according to the Japan Times. Using genomic sequencing, the researchers were able to detect that the patient was infected with two different strains of the coronavirus.
Marcus Vinicius Lacerda, an infectious disease physician at the Tropical Medicine Foundation Doctor Heitor Vieira Dourado, in Manaus, told NPR that he believes that reinfections are fueling the ongoing outbreak in the Brazilian city.
However, researchers are working to confirm the unknowns behind the variant strains, such as their impact on the effectiveness of recently approved vaccines, therapies and virus transmissibility.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.