Rethink What You Thought You Knew About Re Infection With Covid 19

“Two years ago, we thought if you had COVID-19 once you wouldn’t get it again,” said Dr. Preeti Malani, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. But especially with the variations that have become mainstream in the US this summer, that thinking is no longer valid. When it emerged last November, the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 showed the ability to re-infect people who had earlier versions of the virus. This summer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the BA.4 and BA.5 omicron subvariants are sweeping the US, with BA.5 accounting for the majority of COVID cases. Both appear to be even more adept than other omicron subvariants at evading the body’s defenses against infection. Even having an older version of omicron does not appear to protect against symptomatic infection from the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants, Malani said. Subvariants can also infect vaccinated individuals. “I have friends who have contracted COVID three times,” said Malani, who has co-authored an ongoing series of virus updates for JAMA. “One of my kids had it twice.” And Malani herself recently tested positive for the first time, despite being up-to-date on her vaccinations. The good news is that despite being easier to spread, subvariants do not appear to cause more severe disease. And vaccination still protects against serious illness, especially hospitalization and death. But heart patients and stroke patients may need to step up their precautions. Dr. Deepak L. Bhatt, executive director of interventional cardiovascular programs at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, said it’s difficult to know exactly how a pandemic is evolving in real time, and more research on COVID-19 and the heart is needed for definitive answers about the dangers. However, conditions such as stroke, heart failure and coronary heart disease are among those that can lead to serious illness from COVID-19, the CDC says. And last month, Bhatt saw “a number of patients” with severe cardiovascular, cardiopulmonary or neurological disease die from problems related to the coronavirus. “It’s not that they specifically died of COVID,” said Bhatt, who is also a professor at Harvard Medical School. “But COVID took them away.” Some preliminary research suggests what multiple bouts of COVID-19 may mean for heart and brain health. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, using data from the Department of Veterans Affairs, found that re-infection increased the risk of cardiovascular and other complications in people compared to people who had a single infection. The risk increased with the number of infections. The work hasn’t been peer-reviewed, but Bhatt called its findings “plausible” and said it made sense that with a major infection of any kind, getting infected a second time would mean more potential for problems. The best protection against re-infection remains vaccination and reminder monitoring. “There’s still a lot of people who haven’t been vaccinated and they’re just thinking, ‘Well, I’m going to develop natural immunity or I’m just going to wait it out,’” Bhatt said. “But these strategies won’t work.” Vaccination helps even as the coronavirus progresses, Malani said. “It still protects against serious infection. And that should not be forgotten.” Updated omicron-adapted vaccines are expected to be available this year. In the meantime, taking practical steps to avoid COVID-19 may be prudent, especially for people who are traveling. For Malani, a week before a major holiday that required a negative COVID test, she urged her family to be careful. “I told everybody, ‘Listen, I think we all have to be very careful. Because if one of us gets COVID, none of us will go on this trip.” Social connections are important, he said, but gatherings should be outdoors or at least in well-ventilated areas. And people who are not feeling well should stay home. The CDC says anyone who tests positive should stay home for at least five days and isolate from others. And while many guidelines on when to wear a mask have been relaxed, Bhatt encourages people to mask up in crowded indoor spaces, “even if the people around them aren’t.” Research shows it helps stop the virus from spreading. Malani acknowledged that it can be confusing when the advice changes to something like the risk of re-infection. “This is not because scientists and public health officials are asleep at the wheel,” he said. This is what happens when experts learn more. Therefore, people should follow advice from reliable sources. “The reason we care about this is because vulnerable people can die and our health care system can be overwhelmed by sick people,” he said. “And we saw that happen.”
Newer subvariants of COVID-19 are less vulnerable to immunity induced by vaccination and prior infection Copyright © 2022 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
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