Are you immune if you’ve had the corona virus before?

Currently, several thousand people worldwide are infected with the corona virus every day, but the number of people who are considered cured is also increasing.

Are you immune if you’ve had the corona virus before?

“In general, immunity occurs in the patient as a result of a viral disease. So there is a high likelihood of immunity even after infection with the corona virus, ”explains Prof. Dr. Klaus-Dieter Zastrow, chief physician for hygiene, on FITBOOK request.

And further: “The question is, however, how long it lasts. For example, you are only immune to infection with the norovirus for six to eight weeks and can then be infected with the gastrointestinal virus again and again. On the other hand, there are also viruses against which you are immune for the rest of your life after infection. How long the immunity with the new corona virus lasts is not yet clear. “

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Study on monkeys also hopeful

A Chinese study on rhesus monkeys supports this theory, as Prof. Dr. Christian Drosten (chief virologist of the Berlin Charité) in the corona podcast of the NDR reports: “I would say that we are immune, at least for the duration of the pandemic and probably for a while longer. That is also my working hypothesis for humans. “

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However, the expert points out that the findings are only a study with a few monkeys. Rather, Prof. Drosten wishes: “You need clinical observation. One would have to take a look now, patients who have been discharged from the hospital after surviving an infection, would like to be followed over a period of time. And watch against a control group, where you would say, for example, there are ten discharged patients and here are ten people who clearly do not yet have an antibody, so they are not yet immune. And now we just observe them for the next three months and see which group gets infected and how many. That would be a study that will surely be seen in the scientific articles soon. ”

Conclusion

Even if there is not enough data, according to the current state of research into infection with the new coronavirus, there appears to be immunity at least for a time. Further studies are needed to confirm this working hypothesis.

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