Almost all COVID-19 patients develop antibodies to coronavirus, says WHO expert

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Almost All COVID-19 Patients Develop Antibodies To Coronavirus, Says WHO Expert

WHO epidemiology expert Maria Van Kerkhovehowever noted: "how long the antibody response lasts, how strong it is, how it relates to immunity from another infection, and how long that lasts", is still being learnt.

Moneycontrol News Dec 5, 2020 / 01:34 PM IST

Representative image of the SARS-Cov2 or the novel coronavirus

Close to 100 percent of COVID-19 patients develop antibodies to the novel coronavirus aka SARS-Cov-2, according to World Health Organisation (WHO) epidemiology expert Maria Van Kerkhove.

Explaining the same during a virtual press conference on December 4, Kerkhove said that 95-100 percent of individuals who contract COVID-19 – whether mild, asymptomatic or severe – develop an antibody response, ANI reported.

She however noted: “how long the antibody response lasts, how strong it is, how it relates to immunity from another infection, and how long that lasts”, is still being learnt.

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Epidemiologists hold the primary task of figuring out duration of immunity to an infection and the probability of reinfection – aspects that are still under debate about SARS-Cov-2.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

View more How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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