Covid-19 survivors may have protective immunity against serious disease from the SARS-CoV-2 virus for months, or even years after the infection, a study suggests.
The findings, based on analyses of blood samples from 188 Covid-19 patients, suggest that nearly all survivors of the disease have the immune cells necessary to fight re-infection.
“Our data suggest that the immune response is there — and it stays,” Professor Alessandro Sette from La Jolla Institute for Immunology in the US.
The researchers measured antibodies, memory B cells, helper T cells and killer T cells — all four components of immune memory — at the same time.
The study, published in the journal Science, helps clarify some concerning data from other institutes, which showed a dramatic drop-off of Covid-fighting antibodies in the months following infection.
Some feared that this decline in antibodies meant that the body wouldn’t be equipped to defend itself against reinfection.
Sette…