Government scientists say that a Covid infection is “expected” as the virus spreads world news

Government scientific advisers have warned that a resurgence of Covid-19 infection is “expected” with the spread of the virus, based on what is known about people’s immunity to other corona viruses that cause the common cold.

It’s not clear at what point people who have recovered from the virus became vulnerable to re-infection, researchers at Covid-19 Genomics UK Consortium said, but they cited reports emerging from second infections that indicated the timeframe was “relatively short”.

There are seven types of coronavirus that infect humans, the most deadly of which are SARS, MERS and SARS Covid-2 – the virus that causes Covid-19. The other four, which are in the general circulation, cause colds and can infect people again six months after fighting the same virus.

The paper, released with a batch of Sage documents on Friday, suggests that widespread genetic monitoring of the virus from positive test swabs could help identify re-infection cases in the UK, but such a system would require people to understand this once they do. that. They contracted Covid-19 and could be infected again, and they must be tested again if they develop symptoms.

The document describes how the first person who was infected again with SARS Cove 2, a 33-year-old man from Hong Kong, may have caught his second infection when he passed through the UK in August on his way home from Spain. . Although the strain that caused the second infection was predominantly prevalent in the UK at the time, it was exported to Spain earlier, geneticists write.

In the case of the man from Hong Kong, the first infection caused mild symptoms, while the second infection was asymptomatic and was only detected when he walked through a test point at the airport. This indicates that he was better able to fight the virus the second time, but it also raises the possibility that infected people could unintentionally spread the virus without knowing they were sick.

Scientists state that if infected people can be asymptomatic, then it is “necessary” to know if they are potentially contagious. “Obviously, if infections are asymptomatic and contagious, this could pose challenges for any symptom-based measures,” such as testing and self-isolation advice used to control the epidemic.

The paper tracks the release of the minutes of the Sage meeting on September 3 when a panel of experts noted that there were few well-documented cases of re-infection. While such cases appear to be rare, advisers have warned that infected people may release the same amount of viruses as those infected for the first time, and thus be contagious to others. They added the possibility meant that people would need to follow testing and self-isolation guidelines when contracting the disease even if they had Covid-19 before.

Doctors have reported nearly two dozen suspected or confirmed cases of Covid-19 reinfection, but the true number is believed to be much higher, as most cases have not been recorded. While most re-infections are milder than the original infection, some cases reported in the United States, the Netherlands, Spain and India have described more severe symptoms the second time around.