A Person Has Been Confirmed to be Re-Infected With Another Stain of Coronavirus

By
Shawn Ambrose
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Scouring news outlets in search of good news about Covid-19 is like looking for a healthy option at a bubble tea store; you can try it, but it’ll probably end in disappointment.

It’s been over eight months since the coronavirus emerged in Wuhan, yet we are still learning new things about the virus every day.

Recently, scientists discovered several other strains of Covid-19, one of which is said to be more contagious but less deadly.

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I wish I could tell you we’ve finally found a vaccine and can get inoculated tomorrow but I have some not-so-reassuring news instead.

A Person Has Been Confirmed to be Re-Infected With Another Stain of Coronavirus

Infect me once, shame on you, infect me twice, shame on another version of you. 

Scientists have confirmed that a man in Hong Kong has been infected with a different strain of the coronavirus after recovering from the disease in April.

This is the world’s first documented case of re-infection since the disease emerged.

The man’s second infection was detected via airport screening when he returned to Hong Kong from Europe this month.

After sequencing his genome and analysing the results, researchers at the University of Hong Kong discovered he had been infected by two different coronavirus variants.

Lady luck is not on this guy’s side.

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According to Bloomberg, other patients have tested positive for Covid-19 after their symptoms have resolved, which has puzzled scientists.

Is it a re-eruption of an infection, a new infection, or just lingering traces of the initial infection?

Image: Tenor

The good news is that the man who was re-infected didn’t develop any symptoms, suggesting subsequent infections may be milder.

How Long Does Natural Immunity Last?

These reports of re-infection might have you wondering: how long does natural immunity actually last?

Sadly, as with most of the questions about Covid-19, there isn’t a clear answer.

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According to Nature, studies have found that levels of antibodies against the virus remain high for a few weeks after infection, but then usually decline.

And not everyone will have the same levels of antibodies, to begin with: those with particularly severe infections will likely have higher levels.

This was evident in patients with the SARS virus, according to Nature. 

Most SARS patients had lost their antibodies after a few years, but those with more severe infections still had antibodies 12 years later.

Will Vaccines Still Be Effective?

With news of all these new Covid-19 variants floating around, you might be worried about its implications for a vaccine.

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Fortunately, according to Healthline, Covid-19 vaccines currently in development will still be effective against new strains of the coronavirus.

This is because vaccines target an early version of the virus, and since the new strains are not that far off, it will be effective against them too.

Usually, an older strain of a virus will “preserve enough features” that it will provide immunity against a whole group of variants,” said Dr Benjamin Neuman, the head of the biology department at Texas A&M University-Texarkana.

So, if the man above happened to be vaccinated, he may have been immune to that second strain of the coronavirus.

We’ll never know, though. You could very well read a headline tomorrow that says: Vaccines Rendered Useless, Covid-19 To Stay Till 2084.

Like we’ve been doing for the last eight months, we’ll just have to wait and see.

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Shawn Ambrose
Email: [email protected]