Juliet Roffo
08/24/2020 - 17:15
- Clarín.com
- Society
"For now, this news does not have a great impact. An epidemiological follow-up must be done to see if it is a case or just some cases, or if it begins to be observed that the virus mutated . The infectious disease doctor Eduardo López, part of the committee of experts that advises the Ministry of Health of the Nation in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, talks about the first case of reinfection reported in the world.
According to a statement from the University of Hong Kong published in The New York Times, a 33-year - old from that place contracted coronavirus again four and a half months after being infected in his hometown. That same statement shows that the second infection, asymptomatic, was verified when the young man returned from Spain: when tested, it was detected that he had been infected with the strain that circulated in Europe during July and August.
"The first thing to clarify is that it is a statement but the medical paper that supports this research is not yet available : there will be more information there," warns López. And he adds: "This case is a small yellow light that comes on , which today should not generate a great alarm but must be followed to see if there are indeed variations in the virus."
Roberto Debbag, vice president of the Latin American Society of Pediatric Infectology, explains: "In principle, taking into account that this is the first documented case of reinfection in a global scenario of more than 23 million cases , we are talking about something anecdotal in statistical terms The implication of this finding is that people have the potential to be reinfected, but the probability, so far, is anecdotal. "
"What the University of Hong Kong reports is that the patient first contracted the Asian 'lineage' coronavirus , and then one with a genomic variation that corresponds to that seen in Europe . It is not known if the cause of the reinfection was that genetic variation or loss of immunity to the virus, this must be investigated ", highlights Debbag, an infectious disease physician.
Swab samples in a laboratory. Photo: DPA
If the reinfections were of a more massive nature and it was discovered that they have to do with genetic mutations of the virus, there could, according to López, an impact on the design of vaccines . "As with the influenza virus, which mutates and the vaccine is modified, this could happen if a more numerical and widespread mutation of the coronavirus is observed. In that case, it would be necessary to think about modifying the vaccine as the mutation, and also think that the vaccine might not be 100% effective , although in any case it is the strategy with which we must face this scenario. And above all, a case cannot be made into a mountain ", the specialist emphasizes again .
"For now, there is no need to be alarmed and the recommendations for the coronavirus do not change. The development of effective and safe vaccines continues to be the tool that will allow us to face this pandemic," adds Debbag.
Regarding whether a first infection generates immunological memory when facing a second infection, López affirms: "Research has shown that a person who becomes infected later develops antibodies and also robust T cells, which are those that defend the body of another possible infection ".
According to López, "these studies show that T cells are durable and important in immunity , so all the vaccines that are tested have tests linked to whether the body develops these cells when it receives the formula. Some T cells, CD8 , they attack the virus, they kill it, and others, the CD4, keep the immunological memory that warns that the body must produce antibodies quickly in the presence of the virus ".
The expert explains that from this mechanism, "when the virus reaches the nasopharynx, it encounters a barrier that prevents it from staying, or asymptomatically traveling ." Strictly speaking, the patient whose reinfection was documented in Hong Kong according to the statement went through his second coronavirus without symptoms.
"A patient who contracts coronavirus develops antibodies through immunoglobulin M and G: 20 days after infection, he goes through the peak of antibodies , and then begins to decline. As is known so far, at three months the trend is that these antibodies are on the decline. But at the same time it develops T cells that also immunize and are more durable ", adds Debbag.
"This coronavirus is very recent. We do not know if immunity is for life or how it is being lost . Nor do we know what it would be like to be reinfected, but the analogy with other infections would allow us to foresee that when a virus is repeated in the same organism the disease has less The impact is less serious. Immunological memory remains, which if it does not stop the contagion, it does recognize that virus more quickly and the antibodies are activated more quickly ", Debbag describes. And he insists: "The case of Hong Kong is not to be alarmed."
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