A lot has been said about CORONA VIRUS ANTI-BODIES and IMMUNITY since the start of this pandemic. It started with thought that this was once in a life disease and that once you get infected with this virus, the immunity will stay in your body throughout life. This lead to many people being tension free after they were infected with CORONA VIRUS for the first time.
But now, when we are more than 1 year into this pandemic, many cases have come in our surroundings where people who were earlier infected with CORONA VIRUS, were infected again sooner or later.
With increasing information and various cases coming up in our surrounding, it becomes important to find out what the actual story about CORONA VIRUS ANTI-BODY is. And how long does it last.
BASICS of IMMUNITY
For simplicity, it can be said that immunity against any disease is caused mainly by 4 types of cells, known as -
- T cells
- B cells
- IgG antibodies
- IgM antibodies.
These are mostly disease specific and the levels of these cells in your blood determine whether you have any immunity against a particular disease or not. Generally, these levels are high during the start or immediately after the infection and fall down gradually as the days pass by.
In case of diseases where you have life long immunity, the IgG anitbodies last throughout the life. These along with memory B cells provide you protection against that particular disease throughout your life.
CORONA ANTI-BODIES-
Now that we have understood some basics of immunity cells, lets see what various scientific research studies have shown about these immunity providing cells.
NOTE- Antibody testing is done in blood sample and not through nasal samples. Antigen testing is done using nasal and oral samples. Get all the details of corona virus tests here.
IgG and IgM antibodies have been detected in blood as early as 4th day after start of symptoms. This is the reason why antibody testing can also be used as a detection test for corona.
Infact, conducting both antigen and antibody tests in an individual, greatly increases the sensitivity of diagnosing COVID in a patient.
In discharged patients, T cells and IgM antibodies were found but after 2 weeks of discharge, IgM levels started to drop and IgG levels increased.
Various studies conducted across various parts of the world have shown various data about how long do these immunity cells last in your blood. Hence, a one lined conclusion is difficult to state; but we can definitely get an approximate idea of the minimum and maximum limit of age of these antibodies.
IgM antibodies are short termed and usually last for only a few weeks or days in your blood and then drop drastically.
In case of CORONA, IgM antibodies have found to last only 47 days, after the onset of symptoms.
IgG antibodies usually last for longer time in your blood and are responsible for long term immunity. IgG antibodies against COVID-19 virus have shown a wide range when tested in various individuals.
IgG antiboides have been found to peak at around the 39th day post covid.
A vast difference has been found in various studies which were aimed at how long do these last. Some studies stated that these last for 45days whereas some studies found that these were found in patients even after 75-80 days after start of symptoms.
That marks a range of 2 to 3 months as per various studies conducted across the globe!!
Not much has been found about the B cells which play an important role in memory cells of the body.
DO ANTIBODY LEVELS DIFFER ACCORDING TO DISEASE SEVERITY?
A few studies conducted, showed that IgM anti bodies appear at the same time in both severe as well as mild cases but their levels were lower in mild cases.
On the other hand, IgG antibodies appear sooner in severe cases.
But still this can not be confirmed with so much less data.
FINAL CONCLUSION-
DO CORONA ANITBODIES LAST THROUGHOUT LIFE ? - NO
HOW LONG DO CORONA ANTI-BODIES LAST? - 2 to 3 months
To conclude,
COVID IMMUNITY is NOT life long.
&
CORONA ANTIBODIES might last much less than expected.
So even after you have recovered, you are advised to maintain the same level of safety by wearing MASKS and social distancing.
That's all for this topic !!
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SOURCES-
- "Detection of SARS-CoV-2-Specific Humoral and Cellular Immunity in COVID-19 Convalescent Individuals" by Ling Ni and others
- "Not just antibodies: B cells and T cells mediate immunity to COVID-19" by Rebecca J. Cox and Karl A. Brokstad in Nat Rev Immunol. 2020 Aug 24 : 1–2.
- "A systematic review of antibody mediated immunity to coronaviruses: antibody kinetics, correlates of protection, and association of antibody responses with severity of disease" by Angkana T. Huangand and others
- "Rapid Decay of Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies in Persons with Mild Covid-19" by F Javier Ibarrondo and others
- "SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell immunity in cases of COVID-19 and SARS, and uninfected controls" by Nina Le Bert and others
- "Antibody Detection and Dynamic Characteristics in Patients with COVID-19" by Fei Xiang and others
- "Characterization of anti-viral immunity in recovered individuals infected by SARS-CoV-2" by Chen Dong and others
- "Kinetics of viral load and antibody response in relation to COVID-19 severity" by Yanqun Wangand and others
- "Antibody Responses to SARS-CoV-2 in Patients With Novel Coronavirus Disease 2019" by Juanjuan Zhaoand others
- "Dynamics and significance of the antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 infection" by Anita S. Iyer and others
- "Long‐term coexistence of SARS‐CoV‐2 with antibody response in COVID‐19 patients" byBin Wang Li and others
- "Decline of Humoral Responses against SARS-CoV-2 Spike in Convalescent Individuals" by Guillaume Beaudoin-Bussières and others
- "Decline of SARS-CoV-2-specific IgG, IgM and IgA in convalescent COVID-19 patients within 100 days after hospital discharge"
- "Persistence and decay of human antibody responses to the receptor binding domain of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein in COVID-19 patients" by Anita S. Iyer and others.
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