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What does it really mean to be immune to Covid-19?

At medmesafe we try to bring quality information, with reliable sources, and provide it in a simpler and easier to understand way for the common citizen. For this reason, and taking into account that there has been a lot of talk lately about vaccination as a pandemic control mechanism, we wanted to talk on this occasion about immunity.

 

MedlinePlus, the online medical encyclopaedia, defines immune response as: “the way the body recognises and defends itself against bacteria, viruses and substances that seem foreign and harmful”, in other words, the response our body generates to protect us from viruses that may harm us.

 

So you may be wondering, how is immunity achieved in a person? Well, “The immune system protects the body from possibly harmful substances by recognising and responding to antigens. Antigens are substances (usually proteins) found on the surface of cells, viruses, fungi or bacteria”. In other words, having had contact with the virus, your body in response generates immunity to it.

 

Having clarified these concepts, it is interesting to talk about vaccines and how they work. MedlinePlus explains in the same article that “Vaccination (immunisation) is a way of triggering the immune response. Small doses of an antigen, such as live weakened or killed viruses, are given to activate the immune system’s ‘memory’ (activated B cells and sensitised T cells). This memory allows the body to react quickly and efficiently to future exposures.

 

We know that vaccination is a preventive method, which has been used for many years, so it is not surprising that with the first outbreaks of Covid-19 the focus of pharmaceutical companies immediately shifted to developing a vaccine against the virus. We have already explained in the blog the advances that exist so far on this subject, in our post “Vaccines to control Covid-19″.

 

Although the results of the current clinical trials are encouraging, and the first Covid-19 vaccination days are already being planned for January 2021, the truth is that in order to know how long a vaccine is effective in people’s immune systems, it must be observed for that amount of time. This is explained by Live Science in its article “Could COVID-19 immunity last decades? Here’s the science”.

 

Nicolas Vabret, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Mount Sinai Icahn School of Medicine, told the New York Times in an interview that “making predictions about how long coronavirus immunity lasts can be misleading,” and clarifies later in the article that not enough time has passed to ensure medium- to long-term immunity.

 

Does this mean that the vaccines that are about to come on the market will not be effective? No, what it means is that it will not be known how often a person will need to receive it to ensure that they do not get the virus again.

 

So if I have had the coronavirus, can I get it again? This answer is very well explained by the Spanish Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, in their article “Can a person who has had COVID-19 become infected with this coronavirus again?”, where they clarify that at the beginning of the pandemic it was uncertain to know this data, but as time went on, cases of people becoming infected again despite having already had the disease for the first time began to be seen.

 

People who have passed the Covid-19 virus should have frequent rapid serological tests to confirm whether they are still immune to the disease or whether they are likely to become infected again.

 

In conclusion, despite the fact that vaccines will soon be available, the different diagnostic tests that have been used up to now will continue to be necessary. How to know if you have antibodies against Covid-19 and that you are not contagious or dangerous to your environment, by carrying out a serological antibody test. How to know if you have the Covid-19 virus and can infect others, with an antigen test or the PCR test.

 

Undoubtedly, these last three tests will be the protagonists of this Christmas 2020, so we want to remind our readers that in medmesafe we put at your disposal a network of certified laboratories to perform your PCR test (throughout Spain), PCR test at home, rapid antibody test and rapid antigen test by contacting us through the following form.

 

Content Marketing Specialist for websites and social networks +10 years experience in creative writing for different fields AIESEC Alumni Bachelor of Social Communication with specialization in Marketing and Corporate Communications (UCAB)