In the midst of this year’s fourth wave of Omicron, the reinfection of Albanians is not surprising. Antibody surveys in the population showed that about a portion of Australian adults had had COVID at least once by mid-2022.
Now that Christmas and the well-deserved holidays are approaching, how much effort do we put into avoiding COVID a moment (or a third) time?
Studies recommend that we be concerned, as each reinfection can lead to the threat of worse fitness outcomes in the future.
What are the points for reinfection?
The UK COVID Infections Survey recently published research of other people who tested positive for COVID between June and October 2022, when the BA. 4 and BA. 5 Omicron subvariants were circulating widely.
They found that reinfection rates were higher in those who had had an initial episode of very mild illness and had received their emergency vaccine or third vaccine more than 90 days earlier (suggesting a decrease in immunity).
Interestingly, they also found that reinfection rates were higher 14 days or more after a fourth dose of the vaccine than between 14 and 89 days after a third dose. This is probably similar to qualifying for the additional dose of an older population with more chronic diseases, compared to the three-dose regimen for a larger (healthier) population.
What are the effects of reinfection?
For peak viral infections (such as chickenpox or measles), when we are inflamed a moment or more times, the symptoms and headaches are less (or absolutely absent) to the initial illness. This is due to the protective and long-lasting responses of the body’s immune system.
Whether this is true for SARS-CoV-2 infection (the virus that causes COVID) is an open question because of its ability to evade the immune system, which was made possible through immediate emergent mutations. The Australian government has just released its discussion paper as part of its research into prolonged and repeated COVID infections.
Research published last month in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Medicine provides evidence to date on the physical health dangers of COVID reinfection.
These researchers used the U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ huge national database. The U. S. Department of Health and Prevention compared about 440,000 veterans who had had one infection with about 40,000 who had had two or more infections. They also compared them to an uninfected organization (about five million people).
They found that reinfected people had an increased risk of poor physical fitness, which included death and hospitalization from any cause, fatigue, and specific organ disorders (respiratory and physical, neurological, intellectual and digestive disorders).
In addition, the threat increases with the new infection. Thus, those who had had 3 infections had worse fitness results than those who had had COVID twice. And the latter organization had worse fitness than those who had only become inflamed once.
The link to worse outcomes is most powerful in the first 30 days after reinfection, but remains noticeable six months later. Many of those persistent conditions, such as fatigue, lack of concentration, or shortness of breath, correspond to what we call prolonged COVID syndrome. .
It is vital to note that this extensive, vitally successful research is based on a population of American veterans that is predominantly male, older (average age 60), and white. This means that there will be differences in the underlying situations of fitness and vaccination. policy compared to the general population.
Bottom Line
These studies do not mean that other people feel sicker with the reinfection episode compared to the former: the severity of the illness is similar to the specific variant of COVID, the amount of virus that has entered their airlines (“the dose”), and their vaccination status. In many cases, the next infection is “milder” than the first.
However, the Nature study suggests that repeated COVID infection can cause a wide variety of health problems through biological pathways that scientists are still trying to decipher. It is best to avoid reinfection.
Stay up to date on COVID vaccinations. We know that vaccines are opposed to severe COVID illness (needing to be hospitalized to receive oxygen or die of COVID pneumonia). They also supply modest ions against reinfection.
With the existing wave of infections, watch out for crowds and public transportation and wear a mask. Protect contacts, such as the elderly or immunocompromised, by staying away if you have symptoms.
Please indicate the appropriate maximum category to facilitate the processing of your request
Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback to editors.
Your opinion is for us. However, we do not guarantee individual responses due to the large volume of messages.