Young COVID-19 survivors beware: Get vaccinated because you are not safe from reinfection

Even after a previous COVID-19 infection and the presence of antibodies, you still need to go in for vaccination to boost immune responses in your body. Read on to know more.

The COVID-19 virus is once again on a rampage and, this time around, there are more young people who are getting infected. According to medical experts, many of the patients now are between the age group of 20 to 45 years. Even children are not being spared this time around. If you are planning to avoid vaccination just because you are a COVID-19 survivor, think twice. According to a new study, despite a prior COVID-19 infection, young people are likely to catch the virus again and may still transmit it to others. Even after a previous infection and the presence of antibodies, vaccination is still necessary to boost immune responses, prevent reinfection and reduce transmission of the virus. Therefore, it is important for young people to take the vaccine wherever possible. The journal The Lancet Respiratory Medicine published this study.

Immunity not guaranteed by past infection

According to researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, US, immunity is not guaranteed by past infection. Hence, vaccinations that provide additional protection are still needed for those who have recovered from the COVID-19 infection. In the study, the researchers looked at 2,346 young and fit Marines from the US Marine Corps, Of all the participants, 189 were seropositive (they had previously been infected with SARS-CoV-2 and had antibodies) and 2,247 were seronegative at the start of the study.

Reinfection seen in many recovered patients

Across both groups of recruits, there were 1,098 (45 per cent) new infections between May and November 2020. Among the seropositive participants, 19 (10 per cent) tested positive for a second infection during the study. Of the recruits who were seronegative, 1,079 (48 per cent) became infected during the study.

Reinfected people had lower anti bodies

Further, they found that, among the seropositive group, participants who became reinfected had lower antibody levels against the SARS-CoV-2 virus than those who did not become reinfected. The neutralising antibodies were also less common, in 45 (83 per cent) of 54 uninfected, and in six (32 per cent) of 19 reinfected participants.

Viral load of reinfected people 10 times lower

In addition, they found the viral load (the amount of measurable SARS-CoV-2 virus) in reinfected seropositive recruits was on average only 10 times lower than in infected seronegative participants, which could mean that some reinfected individuals could still have a capacity to transmit infection. But the researchers agreed that this needs to be further studied.

(With inputs from IANS)