-Mayukh Sinha, Amity University Kolkata
The COVID-19 pandemic is the trending matter of concern. In addition to that, the post-recovery health of COVID-19 patients has imposed a threat as well. It has been reported that a 33-year-old Chinese man caught his second infection. It simply posed a doubt on the human immune system’s ability to combat pathogens harmful to it.
The human immune system works in two ways: Firstly, the innate immunity (immediate work of action) and secondly, the adaptive immunity (slowly acquiring by the bodily process of combating the infection). In the case of adaptive Immunity, the T and B cells (W.B.Cs) detect and conduct target response. The T cells sense and kill the infected cells. On the other hand, B cells produce antibodies for the same. T and B cells are capable enough to retain their memory and combat the same infection in the future.
Recently, a published study in Nature Medicine states that the antibodies for the SARS-CoV-2 start to decrease after 2-3 months. Scientists from Chongqing Medical University added that they have observed a drastic decrease in the immunoglobulin-G (IgG) levels and neutralizing antibodies of recovered SARS-CoV-2 patients in a time period of 2-3 months.
Due to this decline in the number of antibodies, the immune system is unable to retain the memory of the infection, and thus in some cases, it is unable to protect the body in case of re-infection in the future.
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