Just a few weeks after the omicron infection, is the rapid test positive again? This is not uncommon with the currently prevailing corona variant. Why is that – and when reinfection is dangerous.
Six months is considered recovered in the EU if you have had a corona infection. The infection even replaced a vaccination with the G-Rules, the access restrictions of the past few months. However, more and more data is now showing that it is no guarantee of protection against a new infection, especially with the omicron variant.
For example, researchers at the University of Washington have now published a new preprint study. The scientists examined the data of Covid-infected people from 17 countries. They checked how well they were protected from further infection after their infection. Among other things, they found two things:
Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach also commented on the study results on “Twitter”. “Why an omicron infection is not worthwhile now,” he wrote and warned against consciously becoming infected in order to avoid infection in the fall.
In a “Lancet” study, German scientists at the Primate Center in Göttingen also found that people who had become infected with the omicron variants BA.1 or BA.2 in spring only “significantly reduced The reason for this is that the subvariants responsible for the current summer wave have many immune-escape properties, i.e. they partially escape the immunity built up by previous infections.
The Australian health authorities have now also published a report on immune protection after omicron infection. Reinfection can therefore occur “28 days after recovery from a previous Covid 19 infection,” it says.
In a study published in the journal “Journal of Infection”, researchers from Austria also report “quick reinfections”. This includes those that occurred less than 60 days after the previous infection. “Reinfections, whether caused by high infection pressure and/or high genetic variability, can represent a separate infection driver in the coming waves,” says the analysis. But: “Rapid reinfections mostly occur in unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated people.”
Self-test antigen test for SARS-CoV-2
There is no general answer to how dangerous reinfections are. In many cases, they are more harmless than previous infections because the immune system has already formed antibodies and T cells that can fight off the virus. However, this is not always the case.
Immunologist Carsten Watzl recently explained this on “Twitter” using a car comparison:
“A corona infection is like driving too fast through a curve,” writes the doctor there. That could
In the second cornering that is too fast, you do it “a little better”, says Watzl. However, some accidents still occur. “One practice lap doesn’t make you a Formula 1 driver,” he explains. Therefore, people with reinfections are also exposed to a health risk the second time. Because: “Each additional fast cornering increases the risk again.”
The Austrian researchers also write, for example, “that multiple infections do not necessarily lead to asymptomatic courses”. There is therefore no guarantee that you will not have any symptoms if you become infected again. Because everyone’s immune system is different.
And how high the risk of Long Covid is in the event of reinfection has not yet been finally clarified. However, a new study now suggests that the risk could even increase with each new infection.
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