Current Affairs

Issue

Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has conducted a research to identify the possible ways of SARS-CoV2 re-infection.

 

Background

The study was focused on individuals who were infected by Covid-19 twice and their tests were conducted before finding positivity.

 

Details

• The covid-19 re-infection is a hotly debated topic and there is no clear evidence whether a person infected once can develop permanent immunity against the disease, or can get re-infected after a period of time.

• There are several cases of people getting infected more than once but all cases are not considered cases of re-infections.

• The study found that 58 of the 1,300 individuals tested could be considered as re-infected. This was about 4.5% of the sample size.

• Out of the 58 people who tested positive, their positivity result had to be atleast 102 days apart with a negative result in between.

 

Importance of study

• Understanding possibility of re-infection is a crucial factor in fighting the pandemic by making strategies.

• It will help in controlling disease, finding alternate to physical distancing and also dependence on use of facial masks.

• The study will help in distinguishing re-infection from active virus shedding that takes place in infected individuals.

• The study indicates that permanent immunity cannot be guaranteed. New ways have to be identified to protect against re-infection in individuals.

 

Determining re-infection

• Scientists make use of genome sequencing to determine if there is a re-infection. This is because virus sample from both infections have different genetic variations due to mutations.

• This process is not full proof because genome sequence of previous sample is not available to compare with the existing sample to determine re-infection.