People infected once with the coronavirus can become infected again in the same year, researchers at the Dutch medical university Amsterdam UMC have established.
They base their conclusions, published Monday in the scientific journal Nature Medicine, on the study of coronaviruses that circulated before the current SARS-CoV-2 epidemic and therefore consider it likely that the "new" coronavirus will have the same effects.
The study focused on four known types of coronavirus that are practically harmless as they only cause a mild cold. The researchers analysed the amount of antibodies produced against these four viruses in 513 blood samples taken at various times. They found that it is possible that the same viruses could infect a person a second time within a year or even earlier.
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"It is precisely because the viruses differ so much from each other and we found the same effect in each one that we think this is a common feature of all coronaviruses," explains researcher Arthur Edridge.
People who have recovered from the new coronavirus are therefore not immune and could be re-infected.
The Brussels Times
