Respiratory Infection Can I Get the Same One Back Again

Every bit the latest COVID-19 surge begins to subside in the U.Due south., some people may notice themselves recovering from a coronavirus infection or fifty-fifty reinfection.

That's because every bit the virus mutates and protection wanes, it becomes more possible to be reinfected by the coronavirus. But experts say that, while getting COVID-19 tin provide some protection against a time to come coronavirus infection, information technology's much safer to rely on vaccines and boosters for that protection instead.

Can you get reinfected with the coronavirus?

Yes, it'due south definitely possible to get COVID-xix more once.

"Even earlier the virus started to turn into different variants, even with the original strain that was circulating, at that place were already many documented cases of people getting reinfected," Dr. Otto Yang,professor of medicine in the partition of infectious diseases and of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, told TODAY.

That's not particularly surprising because that nosotros can exist infected and reinfected by the regular pre-COVID coronaviruses that crusade the mutual cold within a twelvemonth, he said.

As more variants emerge, reinfections just become more likely because those variants can potentially evade the immune protection we already take. "If you had delta, you can get omicron — definitely," Dr. Bernard Camins,medical manager for infection prevention at the Mountain Sinai Health Arrangement, told TODAY. And the reverse is true as well; if y'all had an infection with the omicron variant, yous can all the same go delta. That'south considering "the fasten protein of the delta variant is very different from the spike protein of omicron," Camins said.

The coronavirus spike protein is what the virus uses to infect human cells. Antibodies that y'all might develop later a previous COVID-19 infection "have to bind to a really specific area of the spike protein to block the virus," Yang explained. If the fasten poly peptide keeps changing in significant ways, antibodies aren't equally able to practise their jobs to protect you lot from infection.

So, can yous become omicron more than once? Before in the pandemic, there were definitely cases of reinfection with the aforementioned variant. But when it comes to omicron reinfections specifically, that'south something researchers are all the same figuring out. And nosotros likely won't know how common that scenario is for a few more than months, Camins said.

How severe are COVID-19 reinfections?

Generally, reinfections are milder than the initial infection regardless of which variants you lot're infected with, the experts said.

And even if you are infected with a different variant the second time around, you lot shouldn't necessarily await more severe symptoms. That's partly because, even if your antibodies aren't able to muster plenty protection against getting infected, the protection from your T-cells — another major player in the immune system — will even so assistance protect yous from the most severe consequences of the illness even if you become infected, Yang said.

"T-cells are not restricted by recognizing whatsoever one area of the fasten," he said. "They're non really affected equally much or at all by different variants. They should human action just as well against omicron as against delta as against the prior variants."

But Camins notes that what experts may define as a "balmy" infection tin still feel subjectively awful — and, of course, crusade disruptions in your daily life. "In most cases, the symptoms are less severe, meaning your likelihood of death or severe disease is lower," he said. Only if your symptoms cause you to miss work for a prolonged period of time or it takes you a few weeks to recover, "that's still pretty meaning" even if it doesn't ship you to the hospital.

And there is withal the pocket-size chance that you may feel astringent symptoms or complications — or that you'll spread the virus to someone with a weakened immune organization or other underlying condition that puts them at a higher hazard.

How long does amnesty from a previous COVID-19 infection last?

As the experts explained above, having had COVID-19 in the by will protect you to some degree from reinfection in the future.

In full general, the experts said that you'll take some protection for about three to vi months later a COVID-19 infection. But the protection you'll get from this type of "natural amnesty" can exist unpredictable, Yang said.

People who accept more severe bouts of COVID-19, meaning people who are hospitalized, typically end upward with more robust protection from the virus, he explained. But on the other manus, that besides probably means they have a take chances gene that made it more likely for them to get COVID-xix once — and people in that situation really don't want to get it once more.

And a CDC study published in Nov underscores just how much better it is to get protection through vaccination than infection: Amid vii,300 patients hospitalized with symptoms like those of COVID-19, those who were unvaccinated merely had previously had the illness were five times more likely to examination positive for the infection than those who were vaccinated (and didn't have any tape of a previous COVID-19 infection).

Of course, getting that protection via infection also comes with the risks for long-term consequences of COVID-nineteen as well as hospitalization and fifty-fifty death. So, if you lot had COVID-nineteen and aren't vaccinated, it'southward still worth getting the shots to protect you in the time to come.

What tin can you do to prevent reinfections?

To prevent COVID-19 reinfections, you tin use the aforementioned public health strategies that we know tin help prevent an initial coronavirus infection. That includes getting vaccinated and boosted, wearing a mask in public (especially an N95 or KN95 respirator, Camins said), getting tested when appropriate and focusing on ventilation.

Only some people are more than likely to get COVID-19 and also, therefore, to get information technology more than once. That includes those with certain underlying conditions or who are taking medications that suppress the immune system, such equally those with uncontrolled diabetes or autoimmune diseases as well as those undergoing chemotherapy.

Reducing the amount of the virus that'southward circulating in your community will keep you and those around you safer, including those who might have risk factors that could make COVID-19 more than severe for them. "It's not necessarily just about y'all," Yang said. "It may be that you had mild COVID and that if yous get infected again, it will be balmy COVID. Only we should be thinking equally a society about everybody."

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Source: https://www.today.com/health/health/can-get-covid-19-twice-experts-discuss-coronavirus-reinfections-rcna16460

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