Those who recover from coronavirus infection have immunity for at least five to six months, according to several early studies, and although reinfections in previous strains were rare, new mutated strains carry the risk of re-acquiring the new virus, scientists say.
One researcher even pinned down a recent landslide in Manaus, Brazil, a northwestern city in the Amazon, due to reinfections fueled by a variant strain called P.1, per NPR.
While research indicates that the city has already reached the threshold for herd immunity, with more than 70% of the population infected last fall, the health system in the area is now collapsing amid an increase in infections and dwindling oxygen supply .
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The strain was recently reported and according to scientists, it spread in Manaus in December. This strain shares several mutations with a variant that was originally detected in South Africa – which allegedly “escapes” the neutralizing power of antibodies in the recovery of plasma treatment. A team of researchers tested a recovery problem of coronavirus patients against the 501Y.V2 strain, and 48% of the 44 samples had no detectable neutralizing activity, the study authors write. The paper also maintained the risk of re-infection and wrote: “These data highlight the prospect of re-infection with antigenic different variants and may provide a prediction of the reduced efficacy of the current peak-based vaccines.”
“We know you can be re-infected even with the same version of the virus,” Ravi Gupta, a virologist at Cambridge University, told NPR, although it is still too early to say how often the re-infections could occur.
Last summer, Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO COVID-19 leader, addressed reinfection after the first documented case from Hong Kong, saying: “It does not mean that it happens a lot, you know, a lot. We know it is possible “But this is something we knew would be possible based on our experience with other human coronaviruses.”
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The case involves a man who returned to Hong Kong after a trip to Spain when researchers from the University of Hong Kong told the Japan Times, according to the Japan Times, that he tested positive for the virus during an investigation at the airport. According to researchers, the researchers were able to determine that the patient was infected by two different strains of the coronavirus.
Marcus Vinicius Lacerda, a doctor of infectious diseases at the Fundação de Medicina Tropical Doutor Heitor Vieira Dourado in Manaus, told NPR he believes that re-infections are fueling the ongoing outbreak in the Brazilian city.
However, researchers are confirming unknowns behind variant strains, such as their impact on the efficacy of recently approved vaccines, therapies and virus transmission.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.