According to a small study published in the journal Cell, patients with Covid-19 who had symptoms for a shorter period would be immune for longer.
20% of patients better immunized
Researchers at Harvard Medical School studied 92 people who recovered from a non-severe form of SARS-CoV-2 to analyze their antibody levels.
Between May and June 2020, the analyzes enabled them to identify two groups of patients. While antibody levels were similar in all patients at the start of the study, they dropped in 80% within three to four months and persisted in the remaining 20%.
The difference observed in these two groups of patients? Subjects who maintained good antibody levels for several months had symptoms for a shorter period of time. On average 10 days, compared to 16 days in the 80% whose antibodies fell rapidly.
“We have found a subset of individuals who recover quickly while retaining virus-specific antibody levels after Covid-19”, said Duane Wesemann, associate professor of medicine and co-author of this work.
While the nature and longevity of immunity after a Covid-19 infection is still poorly understood, this finding sheds light on the link between the duration of symptoms and the duration of immunization.
