Immunity to Covid in people who have contracted the virus may last far longer than thought, draft research indicated today.
The US study, which only involved 185 people and has yet to be peer-reviewed, has increased hope that a vaccine may be able to generate long-term protection.
The study, which analysed blood samples, is thought to be the biggest to date looking into an individual’s entire “immune memory” after suffering the virus.
Some people were found to have enough naturally developed protection to potentially fight off a second bout of Covid.
Of the participants, 41 were found to have immunity more than six months after infection. It comes after a much larger study by Imperial College found that antibodies declined by about 25 per cent three months after infection.
Shane Crotty, a virologist at the La Jolla Institute of Immunology who co-led the study, told the New York Times: “That amount of memory would likely prevent the vast majority of people from getting hospitalised…for many years.”
Professor Lawrence Young, of Warwick Medical School, said today: “The significant take-home message is that the immune response… is more long-lived than previously thought.”
Early stage trials of a potential Chinese vaccine showed it “appears safe”, according to research in The Lancet.
