Covid19: Immunity could increase virus spread

                       

                                 Immunity can't prevent reinfection 

Governments should not consider “immunity passport “or “risk free certificates”.

The World Health Organization has warned that there is no evidence that people who had developed antibodies after recovering from the virus were protected against a second Infection. Such a move could only increase virus transmission the WHO said.

Some people would assume that they are safe and would stop taking precautions as well countries that allowed recovered patients to travel or go back to their jobs.

Most studies carried out so far showed that people who had recovered from covid19 and have antibodies in their blood, but some of these people have very low levels of antibodies.

As for Friday no study had evaluated whether the recovered had fully gained antibodies to stop the virus from attacking the body again. And currently there is no evidence that proves the power of antibodies mediated immunity to guarantee the “immunity passport”.

The WHO stated as well that laboratory tests to determine the effectiveness of antibodies need more time and further validation to make sure that the tests describe the current pandemic which has been caused by SARS-coV-2 and differentiate it from other six known coronavirus circulation.

The WHO’s statements and Info are based on researches and tests by scientists all over the world, but anything could change rapidly as well learning new facts about the virus.

Many countries all over the world like Germany, Italy and UK have begun to test samples of their population for antibodies, in the UK 25.000 people will be tested every month for the next year both for antibodies and to make sure they don’t have the virus.

Professor Mala Maini from University College London said reliable antibody tests were urgently needed to determine how long antibodies persisted and whether they conferred protection.

“We are not sure yet if these antibodies indicate protective immunity against SARS-coV-2 but preliminary data suggests they may be a reasonable proxy for this, so they are being considered to inform release from lockdown”. He said.

Source: BBC