FROM THE NETWORKS: Could Common Flu Trigger Immunity Against Covid-19?

FROM THE NETWORKS: Could Common Flu Trigger Immunity Against Covid-19?
Fecha de publicación: 
16 August 2020
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The scientific community recently released new results regarding the immunity of humans against Covid-19. An investigation carried out by the Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Germany that concluded that 35% of people exposed to other coronaviruses are capable of developing immunity against the current epidemic.

According to the publication made by the Cuban health network, Infomed, there is a score of patients who have never been positive for SARS-CoV-2, however, they have some protection because they have previously been infected with other coronaviruses.

"This is because individuals who have previously overcome infections by other types of coronavirus, like those that cause common colds, could have generated immune cells capable of recognizing SARS-CoV-2," highlights the study.

Everything indicates that the new coronavirus shares structural similarities with those responsible for the common cold. These researchers after comparing the two groups of patients, healthy and positive to the virus, distinguished that "immune cells of healthy people reacted to different fragments of the viral envelope of SARS-CoV-2."

However, it’s yet to be defined what type of protection other coronaviruses can provide against the infection of the new one. It could, favorably, perform as "a protective effect helping the immune system to accelerate the production of antibodies against the new virus" but, conversely, this immunity could lead "to a misdirected immune response and potentially negative effects in the scientific course of COVID -19 ".

So far and pending of a vaccine against the new coronavirus, which the scientific community still does not confirm its certain arrival, the best protection we can develop is social isolation and distancing, good hygienic-sanitary practices, risk awareness, and the responsible wear of the surgical masks.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff

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