According to a study that is carried out on an affected healthcare staff of JJ Group of Hospitals, COVID-19 antibodies might not last over a couple of months.

The study’s main author Dr Nishant Kumar said that in the study of 801 people that included 28 people who had tested positive for COVID-19 on RT-PCR test seven weeks prior i.e. in late April-early May. No one from them showed any antibodies in a sero survey that was done in June, stated the pre-print of the study. This study will be published in the ‘International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health’, September issue.

The sero survey also had 34 other people who had tested PCR positive three weeks and five weeks earlier respectively. 90% of those positive people in the three-week group had antibodies, whereas 38.5% of positive people in the five-week group had antibodies.

COVID antibodies are currently being extensively discussed due to the vaccine trials and the re-infection case in Hong Kong. Antibodies can protect patients against repeat infections and those who get vaccinated against first infections.

An analysis of the JJ survey’s outcomes have shown that antibodies decay quickly. Nevertheless, few public health experts are sceptical with the early decay hypothesis. Epidemiologist Giridhar R Babu said that they don’t know whether the 28 patients had asymptomatic form of COVID or had symptoms. Studies have revealed that asymptomatic patients do not have the same level of antibodies as compared to patients who had a prolonged or severe COVID infection. Patients with longer symptomatic disease have antibodies for a minimum 3-4 months.

One more doctor said that there is evolving evidence that it is not IgG (Immunoglobulin G - most common antibody) but T cells or neutralising antibodies that helps in building immunity against COVID. He further said that the decay in IgG levels is not too worrying then.

Source: ET Healthworld