Immunity Against COVID-19 Can Last For Six Months After Infection, Says Sweden's Top Health Authority

Stockholm, July 22: Immunity from COVID-19 can last for six months after getting infected, the Swedish Public Health Agency said. According to Sweden’s top health authority, people who have had coronavirus can only be immune for at least six months after being infected whether they develop antibodies or not. How to Protect Your Immune System as You Slowly Head Back to Public Life? Tips to Support Your Body's Natural Immunity.

The health agency on Tuesday published new guidance, according to which, it is currently safe for recovered COVID-19 patients to come into contact with people in high-risk groups. “We don’t see cases of people falling ill twice from COVID-19,” reported Bloomberg quoting Sweden’s epidemiologist Anders Tegnell as saying. However, the agency also said that though people can be immune, still act as carriers of the virus. It advised people to maintain social distancing and other hygienic guidelines.

A recent study from King’s College London revealed that the level of antibodies might drop due to which they become undetectable as soon as three months after infection. According to the Bloomberg report, the body also mounts other forms of immunity responses, including from so-called T-cells. These cells play an important role in protecting against reinfection with COVID-19. Too Soon to Say Whether Recovered COVID-19 Patients Lose Immunity With Time: Scientists.

Research from  also indicated that about twice as many people infected by COVID-19 had developed a T-cell mediated immunity response. Tegnell said that there the risk of being reinfected and of transmitting the disease to other people is very close to zero.

Meanwhile, A study conducted by a research team at the University of California, Los Angeles shows that in people with mild COVID-19 cases, their antibodies against the coronavirus drop sharply over the first three months after infection. The team did an in-depth study of 34 people who had recovered from mild COVID-19 infections. They tested their blood two or three times over three months, Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday.

The researchers found a rapid drop in antibodies - the immune system proteins that help stop viruses from infecting cells in the body. On average, the antibody levels fell by half every 73 days, according to the study published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 22, 2020 07:02 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).