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The team found that 98,8 percent of people infected in February/March showed detectable levels of antibodies in November.
tests carried out in an entire Italian city show that antibody levels remain elevated nine months after infection with the virus. SARS-CoV-2, whether it is symptomatic or asymptomatic.
researchers from the University of Padua and Imperial College London analyzed more than 85 percent of the 3.000 residents of Vo', Italy, in February/March 2020 to detect infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and tested again in May and November 2020 to detect antibodies against the virus.
The Antibody levels were tracked using three "assays," that is, tests that detect different types of antibodies that respond to different parts of the virus. The results showed that while all antibody types showed some decline between May and November, the rate of decline was different depending on the trial.
The team also discovered cases of increased antibody levels in some people, suggesting possible reinfections with the virus, which is a boost to the immune system.
"We found no evidence that antibody levels between symptomatic and asymptomatic infections differ significantly, suggesting that the strength of the immune response does not depend on the symptoms or severity of the infection. However, our study does show that antibody levels vary, sometimes markedly, depending on the test used. This means that care must be taken when comparing estimates of infection levels in a population obtained in different parts of the world with different tests and at different times," explains lead author Dr. Ilaria Dorigatti.
El The team also investigated the infection status of household members, to estimate the probability of an infected member transmitting the infection. inside the home. Their models suggest that there is an approximately 1 in 4 chance that a person infected with SARS-CoV-2 will transmit the infection to a family member and that most transmission (79%) occurs in the 20 percent of infections.
This finding confirms that there are large differences in the number of secondary cases generated by infected people, since the majority of infections do not generate more infections and a minority of them generate a large number of infections.
