Tag Archives: reinfected

Health

Here’s How Quickly You Can Get Reinfected With COVID After Being Sick

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A few months ago, we believed recovering from COVID-19 meant the chances of getting the virus again so soon were low. Scientists thought we were protected for at least six months after the initial infection.

But now, as the hyper-transmissible BA.5 variant whips around the country, more and more reinfections are being detected in people who’ve already had COVID once, if not twice, before.

“Reinfections are due to several reasons, including more relaxed safety precautions such as masking and social distancing, as well as declining antibody levels and additional viral mutations, which can result in immune escape by omicron sub-variants,” Pablo Penaloza-MacMaster, an assistant professor of microbiology-immunology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and advisor to the Illinois Department of Public Heath, told HuffPost.

In addition to SARS-CoV-2, there are four other coronaviruses that circulate and cause the common cold. These viruses are known to reinfect people after an average of about 12 months. Though there was hope that we’d eventually gain herd immunity against COVID, it appears that SARS-CoV-2 is behaving like the other coronaviruses that we’re exposed to year after year.

“Extrapolating from data with other coronaviruses, reinfections with SARS-CoV-2 variants are expected,” Penaloza-MacMaster said, pointing out that BA.5 also has several mutations on the spike protein that make it easier for the coronavirus to enter and attach to our cells. These mutations help it appear somewhat invisible to the antibodies that our body produced during previous infections and vaccinations.

“That sets up for higher risks for people being less protected against getting any infection,” said Albert Shaw, Yale Medicine infectious diseases doctor and professor of medicine at Yale School of Medicine.

It’s tough to pin down how soon people are susceptible to reinfection, Shaw said. That timing largely depends on when you were last vaccinated or boosted, the state of your immune system, your age and presence of underlying health conditions.

The variant you were last infected with, and when, also impacts your risk of reinfection. A pre-print study from Qatar recently found that effectiveness of a pre-omicron infection (like delta or alpha) against a BA.5 infection was about 28% whereas effectiveness of an omicron infection against a BA.5 infection was closer to 80%.

This most likely has to do with how many vaccines people had at the time and when people got infected, according to Julie Parsonnet, an infectious diseases epidemiologist with Stanford Medicine.

“If you got infected with delta, you were infected a relatively long time ago, and if you were infected with omicron, you were infected relatively recently and that may mean your immunity may be a little bit better just because it hasn’t waned over time,” Parsonnet said.

Shaw said most people are still probably well-protected for a few months, but beyond six months, the immunity that prevents symptomatic infections is likely waning substantially. Some people have been reinfected in as little as four weeks.

According to Parsonnet, no matter how many times someone has been infected, there is no way to ensure they are 100% safe from getting COVID again. “I don’t think there’s anyone out there who can say, “I’m immune — I’m just not going to get it,’” Parsonnet said.

Though we can’t prevent reinfections (yet), the vast majority of them will be less severe since the body has memory immune responses that will likely stay intact for years. Penaloza-MacMaster said that though symptoms depend on the person, they may involve headache, difficulty breathing, coughing, fatigue, fever, among others — or no symptoms at all. The symptoms also depend on the variant and the amount of virus a person is exposed to, he added.

At the same time, reinfections — even if they’re less severe — may lead to new health issues. A pre-print study from Washington University School of Medicine recently found that repeat COVID infections increase the risk of persistent health issues — like lung and heart problems and digestive or kidney disorders — after the infection. “The potential for some unpredictable consequences for these organ systems probably increases with subsequent reinfections as well,” Shaw said.

The vaccines and boosters still do a good job at keeping us safe from serious outcomes, even with the new variants. Vaccination triggers a more robust immune response against severe outcomes from COVID-19, which is why it’s so crucial to stay up to date on booster shots.

“It’s clear that the vaccines and prior infections still protect against severe illness and serious illness, so that’s the good side,” Parsonnet said.

Experts are still learning about COVID-19. The information in this story is what was known or available as of publication, but guidance can change as scientists discover more about the virus. Please check the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the most updated recommendations.

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Health

COVID-19 symptoms: What symptoms to expect if you’re reinfected

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The BA.2 subvariant of the omicron variant has a unique set of symptoms that show up differently for everyone.

Driving the news: Researchers recently conducted an in-depth analysis into reinfection risks from the BA.2 variant, investigating whether or not the BA.2 variant can infect people who already were infected with the omicron variant, per CNN.

  • In the study, the researchers investigated 140,000 viral genomes from infected patients.
  • They found there were 263 reinfections.
  • The researchers found 47 people who had been reinfected with BA.2 after getting the original omicron variant.

Symptoms: Symptoms for the reinfected were across the board, according to CNN.

  • Most reinfections were mild.
  • Some people had no COVID-19 symptoms or mild COVID-19 symptoms.
  • About five people suffered “symptoms that were characterized as moderate, akin to flu-like symptoms,” according to CNN.
  • No hospitalizations or deaths were reported.

The bigger picture: A large amount of anecdotal evidence has suggested that the omicron variant can reinfect people, especially through the BA.2 subvariant.

  • “Yes, you can get omicron twice,” Stanley Weiss, an epidemiologist at Rutgers School of Public Health, told Yahoo.
  • He added, “If you had a mild infection, didn’t get a very good immune response, and you get exposed again with a big dose of the virus, it’s definitely possible.”

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Health

Recovering from COVID-19? This is your chance of being reinfected

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Reports of people being infected with coronavirus a second time are now quite common. What increases the chance of reinfection with the virus, and is it possible to be infected for a third and even fourth time too? The answers are here, and you won’t like them.

From popular singers Noa Kirel and Shlomi Shabbat to the assistant in your child’s kindergarten, many people in our lives have had COVID-19 more than once, especially with the Omicron variant. Infection and recovery from a virus is supposed to produce natural immunization in our bodies because the immune system is already familiar with the virus and therefore has specific memory cells that can quickly detect the virus and not allow it to replicate in the body again. Why, then, are so many people being reinfected with COVID-19?

What is reinfection?

Reinfection is getting sick with a virus a second or third time, not dependent on the strain. Various factors cause reinfection. For example, data indicates that in unvaccinated people, there’s a greater chance of being infected more than once in contrast to those vaccinated. Also, it’s possible that those who contracted it very easily the first time are at risk of getting it again because the initial infection didn’t elicit a strong enough immune response.

Different variants have different chances of reinfection. If you had Delta, you are more likely to be reinfected from exposure to the Omicron strain because it’s different. If you had Omicron, however, you’re less likely to be infected again. 

Test tubes labelled ”COVID-19 Omicron variant test positive” are seen in this illustration picture taken January 15, 2022. (credit: REUTERS/DADO RUVIC/ILLUSTRATION)

If you’re vaccinated, the length of time that has elapsed since you received your last dose also affects the risk of infection. Usually, reinfection will be considered as such only if it occurred after 90 days or more from the first infection; this is to exclude from the statistics people who take longer to recover and for the viral load to leave their bodies, leading to them potentially testing positive for weeks after that initial infection.

It’s difficult to say exactly how many verified recurrences have occurred. To prove this with a scientific level of accuracy, there must be a genetic sequencing of the virus that infected a person the first time, then sequencing of the second viral infection and comparing them. These procedures are quite expensive and require so many resources that these tests aren’t practical.

Prof. Danny Altmann, a lecturer in immunology at Imperial College London, in an interview with the Guardian said that combining a two-year-long pandemic along with a decline in antibodies plus the outbreak of the Delta and Omicron strains even after people are vaccinated means that there’s a significant chance of reinfection.

Are some strains easier to be infected with again?

The short answer is yes. Scientists from Imperial College London calculated, after deducting and weighing other factors, that Omicron is associated with a 4.38-6.63-fold higher risk of reinfection compared to Delta. They say that this means that the protection against infection for those who were sick and recovered in the last six months has fallen from 85% before the emergence of Omicron to a rate of 0-27%. The sharp drop in defense is not surprising in light of what is already known about the viral structure of Omicron and its impressive ability to elude the body’s defense systems.

Will being reinfected be easier?

Logic says that reinfection with the virus will cause a milder illness, and data  shows that the viral load in subsequent infections is lower compared to previous ones. However, the severity of the symptoms and the illness also depend on other factors such as the patient’s immune status and the characteristics of the infectious strain.

Data from the UK, for example, shows that as the Alpha variant (remember that one?) became the dominant strain, recurrent infections manifested themselves in fewer symptoms, but the situation was reversed when Delta became dominant. Omicron data now indicates that the chance of experiencing symptoms in the second infection is quite similar to the chance in the first infection. So the answer to this question isn’t unequivocal.

How many times can you get infected with coronavirus?

As mentioned, reports of people who have been sick twice are already quite common, and there are also reports of people being infected three and even four times (though much fewer). It’s hard to say how many times it’s possible to be infected.  What’s certain is that the longer the epidemic lasts and stays in the environment, the higher the chance and number of reinfections.



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Health

Proof Covid is turning into a mild illness? Survivors who get reinfected have lower viral loads

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Covid survivors who get reinfected have lower viral loads and are less likely to suffer symptoms, official data suggested today. 

Scientists claim the figures — taken from an analysis of almost 20,000 Britons — are proof the disease is becoming milder.

Studies show infected people who have lower viral loads are less likely to become ill and spread the virus. 

Last April, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) began examining people who had been struck down with Covid to determine the risk of them catching it again.

Of the 19,470 people they studied between April 2020 and July 2021, 195 went on to catch Covid for a second time.   

This equated to just one per cent of people being reinfected. 

The Office for National Statistics studied 195 Brits and found their average Ct value when they caught Covid for the first time was 24.9. The Ct value shows how much of the virus was present in the nose or throat sample, with a lower number equating to a higher amount of the virus. When participants caught Covid again, they had an average Ct value of 32.4, meaning there was less virus present in their sample

Indian variant is 46% more likely to cause reinfection than Kent strain, PHE warns – but only 1.2% of the 80,000 cases studied were caused by reinfection 

People who have previously beaten Covid are now more likely to be reinfected because of the Indian variant, an official report has found.

Public Health England said the risk was 46 per cent higher with the Delta variant compared to the previously dominant Kent ‘Alpha’ variant.

The finding was based on real-world analysis of the third wave in England and looked at about 80,000 Delta cases.

But even with the increased risk posed by the mutant strain, the numbers of Britons getting reinfected still remains low.

Of the Delta cases PHE analysed over the past three months, just 1.2 per cent were identified as possible reinfections.

The results follow a lab study earlier this month which found the variant was able to dodge antibodies from previous infection better than earlier strains.

PHE said the reinfection risk was incredibly low in people who had recovered from Covid in the past six months.

The agency looked at the PCR test results for a group of people, both vaccinated and unvaccinated, who had a positive Covid test at least 90 days earlier.

There were 83,197 people who tested positive in the 11-week period of the analysis, of whom 980 were possible reinfections.

Comparing the results to the second wave, it said the risk of being reinfected with Delta was 46 per cent higher than Alpha. The analysis adjusted for different variables including age and vaccination.

Experts aren’t sure how long immunity from previous infection from Covid lasts because the virus is so new.

It is believed that for the vast majority of people, immunity lasts for at least six months.

Today’s report only looked at people who tested positive at least 90 days after their first positive swab and had negative tests between the first and second infection. 

Government statisticians looked at cycle threshold (Ct) values of volunteers, and compared the average scores between the first and second infection. 

Ct values show the amount of SARS-CoV-2 virus presented in a swab sample taken, with a lower value equating to a higher viral load. 

Only a quarter of those participants who were reinfected had a high viral load — considered to be a score below 30. 

For comparison, two-thirds had a high viral load from their first test. 

Overall, the volunteers’ average Ct value at their first positive test was 24.9, while it was 32.4 for their reinfection.

Among the group, 93 of them had symptoms the first time they were infected, while just 38 had symptoms the second time they caught the virus.

Scientists say the findings are proof that immunity — from both jabs and natural infections — is kicking in. 

Nearly 37.5million adults have had both doses of jabs made by either Pfizer or AstraZeneca.

No vaccine is perfect and many people who are fully-inoculated are still at risk of getting infected. 

But the current crop of jabs being used in Britain have drastically slashed the risk of infected people becoming ill. 

Meanwhile, the spread of the virus through the population has allowed natural immunity to build up over time, too.  

Nearly 6million people have tested positive for the virus over the course of Britain’s three waves — but millions more will have been infected.

Professor Jonathan Ball, a virologist at the University of Nottingham, told MailOnline we ‘shouldn’t be too surprised’ by the ONS findings. 

He said: ‘These findings show past infection results in immunity that provides good, but not absolute, protection from reinfection, at least over a relatively short time period.

‘Even in those people who were reinfected, the levels of virus in their nose and throat were lower compared to viral loads seen during a first infection.

‘This suggests that their pre-existing immunity, whilst not preventing infection, does effectively dampen down virus replication second-time around.

‘This is important because it means people reinfected are less likely to suffer serious disease, and also the chances of them passing on the virus to others is reduced.’

He added: ‘We think vaccines will produce even higher levels of protection, even in those previously infected, so I would still urge everyone invited to get both doses of vaccine.

‘I don’t think this is because the virus has become less virulent, it’s more to do with host immunity generated following infection.’ 

While high Ct values represent a low viral load, scores can vary over the course of infection and a single figure may not provide the most accurate picture.

And not every score can be compared accurately because different labs might not use the same test. 

It comes after a separate report last week claimed people who have beaten Covid are now more likely to be reinfected because of the Indian variant.

Public Health England said the risk of reinfection was 46 per cent higher with Delta compared to the previously dominant Kent ‘Alpha’ variant.

The finding was based on real-world analysis of the third wave in England and looked at about 80,000 Delta cases.

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Health

Patient reinfected with South African COVID variant in serious condition

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One of the first confirmed cases of reinfection with the South African coronavirus variant has been reported in France in a study published on Wednesday in the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal.

The subject of the case was a 58-year-old patient with a history of asthma who was found to have been infected with the South African variant four months after recovering from a first episode of COVID-19, according to the study.

In September of last year, the patient was diagnosed with COVID after experiencing mild fever and shortness of breath and receiving a positive PCR swab test. He recovered within a few days and tested negative twice in December.

In January, about four months after initially testing positive, the patient entered the hospital with recurrent shortness of breath and fever and tested positive for the novel coronavirus again. Genome sequencing found that he was now infected with the South African variant. About a week after arriving at the hospital, the patient developed severe acute respiratory distress syndrome and was intubated and put on a ventilator.

Antibody testing found immunoglobin antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus. The patient had no evidence of any immunological disorder and was still in critical condition when the study was submitted to the journal.

The study stressed that the first infection happened a month before the South African strain emerged, ruling out the hypothesis that the reinfection was just persistent viral shedding.

Prior studies have suggested that those who recover from the virus generally have immunity against reinfection for at least six months, however there have been reports of cases of reinfections even in people who have antibodies against the virus, with some cases being more severe after the reinfection.

The study published last week stressed that further investigation is “urgently needed” to assess cross immunity between the different variants of the virus and to monitor vaccine effectiveness against new variants. Initial studies have found that treatments using blood plasma from recovered patients were less effective against the South African variant and scientists have expressed concerns that the variant may be resistant to currently available vaccines, although the vaccine is still considered to be acceptably effective even against the various variants currently circulating.
In late January, an Israeli who was infected with the novel coronavirus in August was found to be reinfected with the South African variant, according to Ynet. However, in the Israeli case, the patient did not show any significant symptoms and did not infect anyone else in his household with the second infection, despite experiencing more difficult symptoms with the first infection. Prof. Shai Efrati, director of the Sagol Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Research at the Yitzhak Shamir Medical Center, who studied the Israeli case, believes that the antibodies from the first infection protected the patient from developing a serious case or infecting others with the second infection, despite not protecting them from carrying the virus.



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Health

Israeli coronavirus survivor gets reinfected with South African variant

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Ziv Yaffe has tested positive for COVID-19 twice, after originally testing positive for the virus last August. However, with this new South African strain, Yaffe said that he does not experience any symptoms, stating that he “feels great and did not infect anyone else,” according to a report by Ynet. Yaffe, 57, tested positive for the new strain after returning to Israel from Turkey. He said that it was more difficult for him to deal with the virus when he had it last August. “I am neither a doctor nor a researcher, but I can say that personally, the first time I was indeed very ill,” he said in the report.A possible explanation for not having any symptoms this time may be due to “antibodies from the original virus that protected against the disease when infected with the strain,” according to Prof. Shai Efrati.  Yaffe is currently participating in a study conducted by Efrati where he evaluates people’s immune system after recovering from coronavirus. “Since then we have been following him, and over time we have seen that with everyone, the antibodies go down – but we do not know if this is enough to prevent another disease. It should be emphasized that antibodies do not necessarily prevent infection,” Efrati added in the report.In his re-examination upon his return from Turkey, Yaffe was confirmed to have the South African strain. “He had the virus, but he wasn’t sick,” Efrati said. “His wife, daughters and grandchildren also lived with him – but none of them were infected.”

According to Efrati: “This is a case from which a lot can be learned. The antibodies he developed in August protected him from developing a disease,” he told Ynet. “This means that the antibodies that developed from the original virus he had provided protection against disease even when infected with the South African mutation.”As a result of increasing coronavirus cases, the Israeli government agreed to extend the current lockdown until Friday morning and the Knesset passed a bill which doubles the fine for violations of coronavirus regulations.



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Health

Israeli who recovered from COVID-19 reinfected with South African strain

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For the first time, an Israeli man who previously recovered from the coronavirus was found Sunday to be reinfected with the so-called South African strain, Hebrew media reported.

The diagnosis came amid continued uncertainty on the effectiveness of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine that Israel is using for its mass inoculation program against the new strains of the virus.

Ziv Yaffe, 57, from the central region of the country, recently returned from Turkey. Speaking to Channel 12 news, he said that whereas during his first infection in August he had “all the symptoms,” the second time around he felt fine.

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Yaffe returned to Israel on January 16. By January 23, he had a bit of a runny nose and decided to get a virus test, as he was participating in follow-up research at the Assaf Harofeh Medical Center. The test showed that he was reinfected and further testing revealed that he had caught the South African mutation.

Shai Efrati, head of research and development at the medical center, told the station that Yaffe’s case was unique because doctors had a complete medical record of his bouts with the virus.

“It is the first time that we have a full record, of infection, recovery, reinfection, and that the antibodies that he had protected him from the mutation,” Efrati said.

“What we learn is that when there are antibodies, they protect against illness,” he said.

Screen capture from video of Ziv Yaffe, left, who was reinfected with the coronavirus, and Shai Efrati of the Assaf Harofeh Medical Center. (Channel 12 news)

Efrati cautioned that it was too early to conclude that anyone who has had the disease is also protected against other mutations, saying it would require more similar cases before such conclusions could be drawn.

But, he added, Yaffe’s case is “very encouraging.”

Yaffe said that in addition to not feeling unwell, family members and others had been in close contact with him during the period of his second infection, yet none caught the virus from him.

His case is the second time the South African variant has been brought into Israel from Turkey, according to the Ynet website.

Health officials are concerned that the South African mutation, similar to the British and Californian strains which are considered more infectious, could lead to another wave of the virus among those who have recovered from previous infection and are not being vaccinated as part of the immunization drive.

All previous patients with the South African mutation, first discovered in South Africa in December, were people who came back to the country from South Africa, Ethiopia, or Dubai, according to the report.

Sharon Alroy-Preis, the acting head of the ministry’s public health division, speaks virtually to the Knesset’s Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee on January 6, 2021. (Screen capture: YouTube)

On Saturday, Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis, the head of public health services at the Health Ministry, told the Kan public broadcaster there were preliminary indications the coronavirus vaccines may prove less effective in shielding against the South African variant.

“We don’t have evidence yet that any of the variants are completely resistant to the vaccine, but there is some preliminary evidence to say that perhaps the effectiveness of the vaccine is somewhat less against the South African variant,” Alroy-Preis said.

She said testing was still in progress to clarify the matter.

Pfizer and BioNTech, whose vaccine is being used in Israel’s world-leading vaccine drive, said Thursday that early tests suggest their immunization would be protective against the variants from South Africa and Britain.

Their study found that the antibodies were able to neutralize all the sets of mutations tested. It noted that the effect was “slightly lower” against three mutations in the variant found in South Africa, including E484K. But the firms said that it was “unlikely to lead to a significant reduction in the effectiveness of the vaccine.”

The Health Ministry last week confirmed that three more cases of the South African coronavirus variant have been found in Israel, bringing the total number of infections from the strain to 30. Three of the cases were discovered in a random sampling, raising concerns of undetected community spread.

Meanwhile, the British variant is spreading wildly in Israel, with health officials blaming the continued high coronavirus caseload after weeks of lockdown on the UK mutation. The daily infections continue to remain in the thousands, despite Israel’s strict restrictions and vaccination campaign.

A man receives a COVID-19 vaccine injection at a vaccination center in Jerusalem, on January 28, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Over 3 million Israelis — almost one-third of its population — have received the first dose of the vaccine, and 1.7 million have received both shots. The shots are being administered according to a plan that began with medical workers, those over the age of 60 and at-risk groups, with the age limit dropping steadily as more citizens complete the two-shot vaccination cycle.

In an effort to keep the virus variants out of the country, Israel has closed its main international airport, including to its own citizens. The order is set to expire Sunday, but will likely be extended.

The government on Sunday is expected to extend the nationwide lockdown by another week to drive down infection rates.

Since the start of the virus outbreak early last year 641,373 people in Israel have been diagnosed with the virus, according to Health Ministry figures released Sunday. The death toll stood at 4,768.

Agencies contributed to this report.

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