Published 13:26 IST, August 18th 2020
Immune response in mildly affected COVID-19 patients last for months: Study
Researchers have found that coronavirus patients with mild symptoms develop an immune response that lasts for months and even longer.
Advertisement
Researchers have found that coronavirus patients with mild symptoms develop an immune response that lasts for months and even longer, as opposed to earlier studies that suggested antibodies disappear just after recovery. The study conducted in China on 349 COVID-19 patients, the immune response lasted for six months regardless of illness severity. The study is yet to be reviewed by peer groups, which would give it legitimacy. In a similar study conducted in the United States, scientists discovered that defences created by the immune system in COVID-19 patients appeared even after three months of recovery.
In another study, researchers found that COVID-19 patients are at high risk of developing some sort of mental illness within three months after getting infected. The study conducted on over 62,000 COVID-19 patients found that 1 out of the 16 patients developed some sort of mental illness within the first three months of getting infected. The study found that the risk was even higher in those patients who had to be hospitalised due to the severity of the disease. The common mental illnesses that a COVID-19 patient could experience are anxiety, depression, insomnia, etc.
COVID-19 pandemic
The coronavirus pandemic has been raging havoc across the world for the past six months and due to the contagion nature of the disease people have been confined inside their homes in most parts of the world, which again has been a huge factor in causing mental illnesses. According to data by Johns Hopkins University, the word has recorded over 21 million confirmed cases so far, of which at least 7,74,000 people have lost their lives. The United States, Brazil, and India are the top three most affected countries, with 5.4 million, 3.3 million, and 2.7 million infections respectively.
13:26 IST, August 18th 2020