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Research: Corona may be contagious | Israel today

2020-10-04T14:05:48.231Z


| healthTel Aviv University and Hasharon Hospital examined how the healthy memory of the healthy works • The findings raise doubts about the effectiveness of serological tests "It will be challenging to monitor morbidity through serological surveys" Photography:  Yossi Zeliger - Illustration A joint study by Tel Aviv University and Hasharon Hospital examined how the immune memory cells of those who r


Tel Aviv University and Hasharon Hospital examined how the healthy memory of the healthy works • The findings raise doubts about the effectiveness of serological tests

  • "It will be challenging to monitor morbidity through serological surveys"

    Photography: 

    Yossi Zeliger - Illustration

A joint study by Tel Aviv University and Hasharon Hospital examined how

the immune memory cells of those who recover from corona work.

It raises the possibility that while recovering patients may be protected from a second illness, they may still be contagious.

The researchers sampled the blood of 60 Corona recoverers at Hasharon Hospital, and found that the immune cells from the disease are stable over time - while the antibodies to the virus fade in the blood within a few months.

This finding raises among researchers the possibility that in the case of re-infection, the morbidity may not be significant.

The study was conducted by Dr. Yariv Wein of the School of Biomedical Research and Cancer Research named after Shmonis at Tel Aviv University, led by postdoctoral fellow Anna Weissman-Menach and in collaboration with Dr. Dror Dicker, Director of Internal Medicine at Sharon Hospital and his staff.

Since the virus is new, there is still no data on the immune memory of the recovering over time.

In this study, Dr. Wayne and his team examined both the level of antibodies and the level of white blood cells in the study group. As previous studies have shown, the antibodies against the viral protein of the virus, which is responsible for binding to target cells in the host body, develop very quickly. But they also fade from the bloodstream after recovery, however, in the B cells, which remember the virus proteins and know how to efficiently reactivate in the event of a second infection, no recovery was recorded in the recovering patients for half a year.

"Another tier in understanding chronic morbidity"

"Corona disease is a serious disease and has long-term side effects," Dr. Wayne explained. "Therefore, rehabilitation centers for corona recoverers have been established, such as at Hasharon Hospital, and this allows us to continue to receive blood samples from recoverers even many months after their recovery.

From the group of recoverers who volunteered for the study, we collected blood at time points three months after the onset of the disease, and three months later once more.

"From the data collected, we can say that for at least half a year the recoverers have held constant levels of type B memory cells, which are specific for the viral protein. This means that if those recoverers are infected a second time, the immune system can respond quickly: the B cells respond secondarily. "On the other hand, due to the attenuation of the antibodies, the recoverers may still carry the virus - and may even infect others," he said.

Because the levels of antibodies in the blood of corona recoverers fade over time, and in some cases they are found to have fallen below the detection threshold a total of three months after recovery, Dr. Wayne and his team expressed concern that serological surveys may not faithfully represent the full picture of the virus spread among the population.

"Health organizations and the media often talk about serological surveys, which test the level of antibodies in the blood, as a way to check the extent of the virus' spread in the population," Dr. Wayne noted. "These surveys are very important, but in light of the findings on antibody attenuation in Korna recoverers, we May receive a negative answer on serological examination in subjects who have had a previous history.

"If the serological memory is not preserved for a long time, and if recovering people can still carry the virus and infect others, it will be challenging to monitor the morbidity through serological surveys."

Dr. Dicker added: "We are in ongoing study of the clinical morbidity of the corona virus, which in some recoverers persists even after recovery. This preliminary finding is another step in understanding the chronic morbidity of the corona virus, and may shed light on the future immune capacity of these recoverers."

Source: israelhayom

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