Research finds that catching SARS-CoV-19 and developing COVID-19 more than once ‘doubles death risk’ and increases chance of heart and lung conditions for victims. These findings come from the Washington University School of Medicine. This is based on an analysis of data from almost 500,000 U.S. citizens.
This discovery directly challenges the so-termed ‘air of invincibility’ that some people assume after surviving COVID-19 once and being vaccinated. Instead, adopting a ‘zero tolerance’ approach is the only way to fight the longer-term COVID-19 threat.
This news arrives as hospitals brace themselves for a coronavirus and flu ‘twindemic’ this winter.
People who contract COVID-19 may develop long term issues in their lungs, heart, brain, blood, muscles, and digestive system. The resultant damage significantly increases their risk of death. This is borne out in a Nature Medical article titled “Acute and postacute sequelae associated with SARS-CoV-2 reinfection.”
By examining the records of 443,000 people who tested positive for COVID-19 once and 41,000 people infected twice or more, for the period March 2020 and April 2022, reveals the repeat infection concern.
The analysis found that people who had the virus more than once were found to be twice as likely to die and three times more likely to be hospitalised than people infected just once. In terms of specific disease modalities, the multiple COVID-19 victims were three and a half times more likely to suffer lung problems, three times more likely to contract a heart condition and one and a half times more likely to have brain problems.
Commenting on the study, lead researchers Professor Ziyad Al-Ali states: “Some people started to refer to these individuals as having a sort of super immunity to the virus. Without ambiguity, our research showed that getting an infection a second, third or fourth time contributes to additional health risks in the first 30 days after infection, and in the months beyond.”
It is thought that the virus leaves a biological marker in or bodies even after mild to moderate symptoms. This is where advocates of the ‘zero tolerance’ response come in. Scientists in this camp argue that it is best to lock the virus out of the human body with an anti-viral drug rather than relying on vaccines. With vaccines, these will reduce the scale of infection but do not block the virus from leaving its mark and mutating.
To achieve this a different strategy using new antivirals is needed in order to avoid always being one step behind viral mutations.
