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Virologist Watzl explains why some do not contract corona

2022-04-30T07:23:56.399Z


Virologist Watzl explains: Why some people do not contract Covid-19 Created: 04/30/2022Updated: 04/30/2022 09:13 By: Sven Trautwein The number of new infections remains high. But there are people who do not become infected with Corona. Are these immune? Dortmund – During the past two years of the pandemic, there are people who, despite all precautionary measures, have been infected with the co


Virologist Watzl explains: Why some people do not contract Covid-19

Created: 04/30/2022Updated: 04/30/2022 09:13

By: Sven Trautwein

The number of new infections remains high.

But there are people who do not become infected with Corona.

Are these immune?

Dortmund – During the past two years of the pandemic, there are people who, despite all precautionary measures, have been infected with the corona virus several times.

Others seem immune to it.

Why is that?

Are there characteristics that indicate immunity?

Virologists around the world are trying to find answers to this question.

Corona: That's why some don't get sick

It has not yet been deciphered why some people do not contract corona.

(Symbol photo) © National Institute of Infectious Diseases/IMAGO

After a basic immunization and booster shots, researchers have come to the conclusion in recent months that there can still be another infection.

According to Klaus Stöhr, former head of the World Health Organization (WHO) influenza program, there is no 100% protection.

In an interview with "RTL", he even goes one step further, saying that even a difficult course cannot be ruled out despite everything.

Despite everything, patients with Corona keep ending up in the intensive care unit.

You can find even more exciting health topics in the free newsletter from 24vita.de, which you can subscribe to right here.

With every vaccination and every infection, the number of antibodies increases.

These can protect against a severe course, but are different in each person.

They depend on the strength of the infection and how your own immune system reacted to the vaccination.

This value can also change over time.

There are even people who have been vaccinated against Corona more than 80 times.

Virologist Watzl: That's why some people don't get sick

Prof. Carsten Watzl, head of the Immunology research area at the Leibniz Institute for Labor Research at the TU Dortmund, is also concerned with the question of why some people do not contract the corona virus despite extremely high incidences and many contacts.

Here, according to Watzl, a distinction must be made between contagious and not contagious, as well as between sick and not sick.

Because not everyone who gets infected also has symptoms.

These three factors can influence the contagion

  • genetics

  • blood type

  • immune system as a whole

The researcher assumes that the number of T cells in the immune system appears to have an impact on the risk of infection.

The T cells can recognize and destroy cells that have been invaded by pathogens.

This is important because coronaviruses were identified as early as the 1960s.

Today's Sars-CoV-2 is therefore a new variant.

It is therefore possible that the immune system can remember previous contact with this virus.

Corona: Partial immunity through T cells?

Researchers assume that around 30 to 40 percent of the population have so-called cross-reactive T cells.

These "are able to see a Sars-CoV-2 or fragments of it," explains Watzl to the "world".

A Swedish study comes to a similar conclusion.

In this study, test subjects who were not ill and who lived with a COVID patient had developed antibodies against the corona virus in some cases.

A kind of partial immunity could be assumed here.

Reliable figures are missing, however.

"So far there have actually only been hypotheses on this question," says Watzl.

This article only contains general information on the respective health topic and is therefore not intended for self-diagnosis, treatment or medication.

In no way does it replace a visit to the doctor.

Unfortunately, our editors are not allowed to answer individual questions about clinical pictures.

Source: merkur

All life articles on 2022-04-30

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