03/18/2021 11:31 AM
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 03/18/2021 11:31 AM
At the start of the pandemic, it seemed that contracting coronavirus gave those who had overcome the disease the possibility of becoming "super humans" immune to the virus that plagues the world.
But we soon discovered that this was not the case and that reinfections do exist.
Now, how likely is it that someone who had coronavirus will be infected again?
And are there people who are more susceptible than others?
A study published this Wednesday in the scientific journal The Lancet confirms that Covid-19 reinfections are "rare" although they are "more common" in people over 65, who have
only 47%
protection
against a second infection compared to 80% of the youngest individuals
.
In the first large-scale investigation into this matter, experts from the Statens Serum Institute in Denmark found that most individuals who already had coronavirus are protected against a new infection for
at least six months
.
The analysis assessed the reinfection rates detected in Denmark in 2020 and
focused only on the original strain of the virus
, and not on the new variants that emerged later.
This evaluation confirmed that a small proportion of people (0.65%)
tested positive for PCR twice
.
Having suffered a previous infection with the virus provided around 80% protection against reinfection in those under 65 years of age, while people of that age and older only conferred 47% protection.
They found no evidence to suggest that protection against reinfection
declined in a six-month follow-up period
.
The findings underscore the importance of taking steps to protect the elderly, such as enforcing social distancing norms and prioritizing the elderly in vaccinations.
This discovery adds another risk to this population,
the most vulnerable to Covid-19
.
It has already been shown that older adults see an increased risk of suffering complications and serious forms of the disease, and mortality is also higher.
In Argentina, for example, while the fatality rate is 2.44% in the general population, among those over 60 years of age it climbs to 13.54%.
Research published in The Lancet also suggests that even citizens who have
already had the virus should get vaccinated
.
"(The study) gives us another piece among many others in the puzzle of our understanding of Covid-19 as a disease," the author of the investigation, Steen Ethelberg, told the EFE agency, while highlighting that the findings also " they reinforce the importance of vaccination among the elderly in our societies, even if they have been previously infected. "
"Vaccinating the vulnerable and, in the longer term, the majority of the population certainly seems the best way forward," he concluded.
The data was obtained from the Covid-19 test strategy applied in Denmark, whereby more than two-thirds of the population - 4 million people, 69% of the total - were tested in 2020.
Specifically, among those who had coronavirus in the first wave - between March and May 2020 - only 0.65% tested positive again in the second outbreak - September to December 2020.
At 3.3%, the infection rate was five times higher among those who tested positive during the second wave having previously tested negative.
Of those under 65 who had the disease in the first wave, 0.60% tested positive again in the second wave, and among those who did not suffer it,
the percentage was 3.60%
.
Older people had a higher risk of reinfection, and 0.88% of those who were infected in the first wave tested positive again in the second.
With information from EFE
ACE
Look also
The new doses that arrive from the Sputnik V vaccine will be only for the elderly
A dose or two: is the change in vaccination strategy that the Government wants to make correct?