Reinfection fears and Immunity concept

Subject: Science and tech

Context:

While the fear of COVID-19 re-infection has dogged discussion on the novel coronavirus, it was in late August that the first ‘confirmed’ case of re-infection was officially recorded. 

Concept:

• The human body’s immunity acts in two forms — as innate, jumping to the task of protection immediately, and adaptive, meaning immunity acquired by the body in the process of surviving infection by pathogens, essentially over a period of time.
• The adaptive immune system consists of two types of white blood cells, called T and B cells, that detect molecular details specific to the virus and, based on that, mount a targeted response to it.
• T cells detect and kill those infected cells.
• B cells make antibodies, a kind of protein that binds to the viral particles and blocks them from entering our cells; this prevents the replication of the virus and stops the infection in its tracks.
• T and B cells retain this memory and help the body fight the infection later.
• Yet it is also the case that with other viruses the amount of antibodies in the blood peaks during an infection and drops after the infection has cleared, often within a few months.
• This is the fact that has some people worried about COVID-19 reinfection.