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Hospital staff with Covid-19 symptoms develops antibody against reinfection: Study

Prashasti Awasthi Mumbai | Updated on May 27, 2020 Published on May 27, 2020

Almost all doctors who are treating the coronavirus infected patients and received mild forms of Covid-19 have developed antibodies to prevent reinfection, as per the study conducted on hospital staff in northeastern France, as per the Bloomberg report.

Out of 160 volunteers for the study, 159 successfully developed antibodies within a fortnight after the start of infection, Institut Pasteur and university hospitals in Strasbourg said in an early version of their findings released before peer review.

Almost all of the staff tested had antibodies that were capable of neutralizing the virus within 41 days of developing symptoms.

The findings revealed that people who are mildly infected with the virus are capable of protecting them against reinfection.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) had said on April 24 that there was no evidence yet that people who have recovered and have antibodies are protected from a second infection.

"This finding supports the use of serologic testing for the diagnosis of individuals who have recovered from SARS-CoV-2 infection," Institut Pasteur's Arnaud Fontanet and colleagues wrote in the paper.

More of the hospital staff developed neutralizing antibodies over time, with only 79 per cent of the volunteers exhibiting them within 20 days, compared with 98 per cent detected after 41 days. All of them had their infections confirmed by tests at the time they were ill, Bloomberg report added.

Published on May 27, 2020

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