Coronavirus reinfection: Myth or reality? | The Business Standard
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
    • GOVT. Ad
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • TBS Graduates
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Tech
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Monday
October 02, 2023

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
    • GOVT. Ad
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • TBS Graduates
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Tech
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
MONDAY, OCTOBER 02, 2023
Coronavirus reinfection: Myth or reality?

Thoughts

Tanvir Ahmed Pranto
25 July, 2020, 09:25 pm
Last modified: 10 November, 2020, 01:14 pm

Related News

  • Coronavirus origins still a mystery 3 years into pandemic
  • Covid remains a public health emergency, says WHO
  • Potential China wave is 'wild card' for ending Covid emergency: WHO advisors
  • WHO chief hopes Covid will no longer be emergency next year
  • The Prof Writes: Covid-19 - The one that got away from us

Coronavirus reinfection: Myth or reality?

Reinfection could complicate the process of making a working vaccine or achieving herd immunity

Tanvir Ahmed Pranto
25 July, 2020, 09:25 pm
Last modified: 10 November, 2020, 01:14 pm
File Photo
File Photo

The world has already been hit rock-bottom due to the novel coronavirus. Now the concern of its reinfection has spread dark clouds over the already-gloomy situation.

Reinfection could complicate the process of making a working vaccine or achieving herd immunity. We are only months into this virus and do not know exactly how this virus behaves yet.

Around the world, there have been several reports about people being reinfected by the virus after testing negative. 

Earlier in June, Md Shihab Uddin, a Bangladeshi physician from Barishal, tested positive after he had recovered from Covid-19 in April. There were several other rumors across the country saying more people were reinfected with the virus, but nothing was confirmed.

According to The New York Times, some people in China, Japan and South Korea tested positive twice. South Korea' Disease Control and Prevention investigated those 285 cases and found that several of the second positives came two months after the first, and in one case 82 days later. 

The US has seen quite a number of people being reinfected. Two separate Las Vegas boxers tested positive after recovering from the virus. According to MIC, a woman from Colorado named Michelle Hart swept the headlines as she tested positive for the second time in June. Within a month, a Google search for that story, "Colorado woman tests positive for Covid-19 twice," produced more than three million results. 

The New York Times reported a doctor saying a second round of illness was a reality for some people, and was much more severe.

These stories and people's reaction to the idea of being infected twice are alarming.  

However, experts are still confused about whether reinfection is normal or not. While some experts claim that the idea of testing positive twice is a myth, and there is no evidence of widespread vulnerability to reinfection, other experts have claimed it to be real and an alarming possibility. 

These cases are all anecdotal and they are, of course, alarming. It might seem real as everyone is thinking and talking about being reinfected when it's not scientifically proven yet. It is still very unlikely that the same person will be infected by the virus twice. 

Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told the Times – "I haven't heard of a case where it's been truly unambiguously demonstrated."

Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia University in New York also told the Times that there has been no virological evidence that reinfection was happening. 

It is true that the same viruses can strike a person twice, but not in this short a period of time – according to some experts. Reports of reinfection may be cases of drawn-out course of a previous infection that had been lurking somewhere in their body. Or it might be some other virus with similar symptoms. 

It can take from weeks to months, depending on one's antibodies, to properly go away. 

Then again, antibodies are not the only form of protection from the virus. Our immune system is an army of connected cells which protects us all from all forms of internal and external dangers. The Times' experts explain that our immune system initiates a defense from cells as soon as it is attacked by any virus. It helps kill the virus and produce any help that might be required for the coming fight.  

These defense cells are commonly referred to as T cells and B cells. Antibodies are later produced after the T cells do their thing, though less is known about how long these T cells persist.

Some experts also claimed that either of the positive or negative results might have been false in some cases. That can be true in our country given the accuracy issue with some tests recently. 

According to The New York Times, most people who have been exposed to the virus make antibodies that fight and destroy the virus. The severe the symptoms, the stronger the response. Few recent studies suggest that antibody levels plummet and that has fueled the worries about reinfection.
  
According to USA Today, King's College researchers have found that antibodies peaked up to three weeks after battling with symptoms before declining.

A study in MedRxiv, on July 17, suggests that antibody level goes up when attacked by the virus, fights and destroys it and then declines before being stabilised. 

Dr. Michael Mina, assistant professor of Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health,  told The New York Times, "This is a famous dynamic of how antibodies develop after infection: They go very, very high, and then they come back down."

However, the World Health Organization (WHO) stated in April that, "There is currently no evidence that people who have recovered from Covid-19 and have antibodies are protected from a second infection."

Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, told USA Today that the possibility of reinfection is very possible and certainly real.  

USA Today reported him saying a number of patients who suffer only mild infections get better within a few days and test negative before experiencing the recurrence of symptoms again. Glatter mentions that the intensity can be worse the second time. 

"We are months away from knowing for certain if reinfections are possible or a significant issue," Dr. Daniel Griffin told USA Today. 

"Longitudinal evaluation and decline of antibody responses in SARS-CoV-2 infection," according to another study in MedRxiv, "supports the possibility that Covid-19 could reinfect people repeatedly." 

Melissa Nolan, an infectious disease expert and professor at the University of South Carolina, said, as USA Today, reported, "Until we have a vaccine that is widely available, societies will not naturally develop their own herd immunity. These new findings suggest that persons might be reinfected."

So many people after recovering from an initial illness, have been reinfected – by almost every virus. This includes chicken pox – for which antibodies are supposed last a lifetime – plus Ebola and HIV/AIDS which all saw similar kinds of reinfection after people initially recovered from the virus. 

Among more than 15 million people who have been infected by the novel coronavirus, a small number of reinfections should not be alarming – yet. However, the question remains as to whether this is a rare situation. 

Top News

Reinfection / myth / Coronavirus

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • The third terminal of the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport brings is all set to serve air passengers. Photo: Syed Zakir Hossain/TBS
    The facelift, the economic injection: What Dhaka airport's third terminal promises
  • Photo: Collected
    LPG price hiked by Tk6.58 per kg, 12kg cylinder to cost Tk1,363
  • Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman win the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden October 2, 2023. TT News Agency/via REUTERS
    Hungarian and US scientists win medicine Nobel for Covid-19 vaccine work

MOST VIEWED

  • Paperfly aborts flight
    Paperfly aborts flight
  • Photo: TBS
    Habibur Rahman takes charge as 36th DMP commissioner
  • US dollar banknotes are seen in this illustration taken on 10 March 2023. Photo: Reuters
    Remittance earnings in September lowest in 41 months
  • How China's Belt and Road changing Bangladesh's  infrastructures
    How China's Belt and Road changing Bangladesh's infrastructures
  • Some banks get more remittance. Is it for extra efforts, or higher dollar rates?
    Some banks get more remittance. Is it for extra efforts, or higher dollar rates?
  • Representational image. Photo: Masum Billah
    Exporting mango trees to Dubai: Bangladeshi farmers tap into afforestation programmes in Gulf countries

Related News

  • Coronavirus origins still a mystery 3 years into pandemic
  • Covid remains a public health emergency, says WHO
  • Potential China wave is 'wild card' for ending Covid emergency: WHO advisors
  • WHO chief hopes Covid will no longer be emergency next year
  • The Prof Writes: Covid-19 - The one that got away from us

Features

Photo: Collected

Simply Khulna: When food packs a punch

2h | Food
Photo: Collected

Where did hamburgers come from?

2h | Food
Shahjahan Bhuiyan’s parents and two out of his three siblings passed away when he was behind bars. He missed all the funerals.  
Photo: Nayem Ali

Hangman Shahjahan Bhuiyan: Life after 60 executions and 44 years in prison

8h | Panorama
Illustration: Collected

Apology to a life forgotten to live

22h | Features

More Videos from TBS

Remittances fall to lowest in 41 months, export growth also declining

Remittances fall to lowest in 41 months, export growth also declining

2h | TBS Economy
How much time do you spend on mobile apps?

How much time do you spend on mobile apps?

5h | Tech Talk
Everything about the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 stadiums: Part 1

Everything about the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 stadiums: Part 1

19h | TBS SPORTS
Apple is bringing new software updates to prevent overheating

Apple is bringing new software updates to prevent overheating

21h | Tech Talk
EMAIL US
[email protected]
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2023
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - [email protected]

For advertisement- [email protected]