COVID-19 reinfection in recovered patients possible if antibodies reduce within 5 months: ICMR

Patients who have recovered from Covid-19 can again get infected by the virus once the antibodies of the viral disease start depleting, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said on Tuesday.

There is a possibility of re-infection if antibodies reduce in the body of a Covid-19 recovered person in five months' time after the recovery, the ICMR said.

According to the Centre for Disease Control (USA), you call it reinfection (of Covid-19) if the person is reinfected after 90 days from turning negative to the Sars-CoV-2 after testing positive to it.

The ICMR Director-General Dr Balram Bhargava on Tuesday, at a union health ministry briefing, urged people to continue wearing masks and follow health guidelines to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the country.

"After an infection, antibodies develop in the body. In the case of coronavirus, it has been seen that the antibodies last for at least five months. The Covid-19 virus is still evolving and we are learning more about it. If antibodies decrease in the body of a person within five months, then there is a possibility of reinfection and a person may become re-infected with COVID-19," Bhargava said.

"Hence, it is important to take precautions like wearing a mask, even after someone gets the disease once," he added.

Bhargava also informed that the ICMR is conducting an assessment on the subject of reinfection as commissioned by the Union Health Ministry, and its result will be out shortly.

As per the ICMR, so far, three cases of reinfection have been reported in the country -- two from Mumbai and one from Ahmedabad. The apex body of medical research had also stated that the cut-off date for the depletion of antibodies set by it for the assessment is 100 days from the infection.

"There are various cut-off days that are being referred to for reinfection. Though the public is going by up to 110 days, we are taking 100 days as the cut-off period because the antibodies last until then," Bhargava had said.

The main symptoms of coronavirus infection are fever, cough and breathlessness, the ICMR official explained.

Commenting upon the World Health Organisation (WHO) Solidarity Trial, the ICMR chief said, "WHO solidarity trial is a 30-country trial in which India has been a participant and interim results of this have been put on the website, which has not yet been peer-reviewed. However, we find that these drugs (Remdesivir and HCQ) are not performing as good as it was expected."

"Discussions are being done at joint monitoring group and national task force of COVID-19. We will take into cognizance the trial results and issue advisories accordingly," he said.

The trial was conducted from March 22 to October 4 and aimed to study the effects of these treatments on overall mortality, initiation of ventilation, and duration of hospital stay in hospitalized patients.

Previously, the trial arms for hydroxychloroquine and lopinavir were discontinued as primarily results had shown no benefits.

The Solidarity Trial is the world's largest global randomized controlled trial in a pandemic situation for COVID-19 therapeutics, spanning 30 countries. India contributed one-tenth of the participants in the trial, said ICMR.

"For capping the price of coronavirus treatment, the apex court has received several petitions. The Supreme Court has given directions to the state and central government which are being followed," said Rajesh Bhushan, Union Health Secretary responding to a question related to fixing the price for Covid-19 treatment.

(With agency inputs)