When the pandemic started, it was shocking to learn that someone you know had tested positive for COVID. But two years later, it’s almost more shocking to discover that someone hasn’t been infected with the virus.
In late April, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed that most Americans had become infected with coronavirus in February 2022, and it has only continued to spread since then. To date, there have been more than 87 million cases of COVID reported to the CDC. But the agency says the total impact of the virus is likely to go much further, with blood tests indicating that the estimated number of infections is actually more than 186 million. This means that even people who think they have never had COVID will want to heed a recent warning from virus experts.
Read on for this new alert that is being given to anyone who has had coronavirus.
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Coronavirus is not a single deal for everyone. Over the past two years, we have seen many people experience continued problems after their initial infection. Long COVID, Paxlovid rebound, and even reinfection are not uncommon. According to the CDC, although “most people will have some protection against repeated infections” after recovering from COVID, it is possible that people will have the virus several times.
“Reinfection with the virus that causes COVID-19 means a person became infected, recovered, and then re-infected,” the CDC explains.
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Maybe you seem to be hearing more about reinfections now than before 2022, and that’s because you are. “If you asked me about reinfection maybe a year and a half ago, I would tell you that maybe I have a patient here or there, but it’s very, very rare,” Ziyad Al-Aly, MD, director of the Center for Clinical Epidemiology. , and the head of the research and education service for the Veterans Affairs St. Louis, they told CNN, and added that this is no longer the case.ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb
What has changed? According to the CDC, the emergence of new variants of COVID “may increase the risk of reinfection,” and Omicron’s current and rapidly spreading BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants are some of the worst offenders. Peter Chin-Hong, MD, an infectious disease expert at UC San Francisco, told the Los Angeles Times that the “superpower of the two subvariants is reinfection,” as they have the ability to quickly evade existing immunity, until and all among those who have recently become infected. with other Omicron subvariants.
“What we’re seeing is a growing number of people who have become infected with BA2 and then become infected (again) after four weeks,” Andrew Robertson, director of health, told news.com.au ‘Western Australia, by Insider. “So maybe between six and eight weeks (later) they’re developing a second infection, and that’s almost certain to be BA4 or BA5.”
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Not only the news that reinfection is more common now should worry people who have already been infected with the virus. A new study published as a prepress for Nature Portfolio found that there could be some health hazards associated with capturing COVID more than once. The study’s researchers used the health records of more than 5.6 million people treated in the VA health system to compare patients who only had one COVID infection with those who had two or more reported infections.
According to the study, people who had been infected with COVID more than once had twice the risk of death and three times the risk of hospitalization in the six months after their last infection, compared with those who only they had had a singular case of COVID. The researchers also found that these people had a higher risk of developing new and lasting health conditions, such as lung and heart problems, fatigue, digestive and kidney disorders, diabetes, and neurological problems.
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No one wants to have COVID more than once, but many people assume that if they have survived their first attack with the virus, they will be fine if they have it again. “There’s this idea that if you used to have COVID, your immune system is trained to recognize it and it’s better equipped to fight it, and if you have it again, it may not affect you as much, but it’s not. true, “Al-Aly, who led the study, told CNN. “The most relevant question for people’s lives is, if you reinfect yourself, does it increase your risk of acute complications and long COVID? And the answer is a clear yes and yes.”
According to the study, the risk of a new health problem increases with each subsequent reinfection by COVID, and this continuously increasing risk is present even for those who have been vaccinated. But Al-Aly noted that it has been more common to see reinfections among people who already had health risks due to their age or other underlying health issues. “People who are sick or people with immune dysfunction may have a higher risk of reinfection and adverse health outcomes after reinfection,” he told CNN.