According to studies conducted in Australia and South Korea, health care staff who recovered from the coronavirus maintained antibodies that resisted infections for up to eight months. The Australian study results indicate that the immunity could last even longer.
In all the Australian study participants, memory B cells were present. According to the study, the cells “remember” viral proteins and can cause rapid antibody development when re-exposed to the virus for months after initial infection.
The South Korean research also found that patients had high rates of serum antibodies eight months after asymptomatic or moderate COVID infection. Antibodies fading after 20 days were recorded by previous conflicting studies, but differences in testing and manufacturing may be responsible for the difference, research authors said.
“These results are important because they show, definitively, that patients infected with the COVID-19 virus do in fact retain immunity against the virus and the disease,” said senior author Menno van Zelm, Ph.D. This gives real hope that they can provide long-term protection once a vaccine or vaccines are created, he said.
