The World Health Company (WHO) alerted on Saturday that there is no proof that individuals who check positive for the brand-new coronavirus are immunized and secured against reinfection.
The warning suggests that the issuance of “immune passports” might promote the ongoing spread of the pandemic.
” There is presently no evidence that people who have actually recovered from #COVID19 and have antibodies are protected from a second infection,” WHO stated in a statement.
” As of 24 April 2020, no research study has actually examined whether the presence of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 gives immunity to subsequent infection by this virus in human beings.”
Some federal governments, wanting a progressive go back to work and the resumption of economic activity, have put forward the concept of providing documents vouching for the immunity of people on the basis of serological tests revealing the existence of antibodies in the blood.
However the efficiency of an immunization thanks to antibodies has actually still not been established and the readily available scientific information do not justify the approving of an “immune passport” or a “certificate of absence of risk”, alerts the WHO.
At this moment in the pandemic, there is not enough evidence about the efficiency of antibody-mediated immunity to ensure the accuracy of an “immunity passport” or “safe certificate.”
” Individuals who presume that they are unsusceptible to a 2nd infection due to the fact that they have actually received a positive test outcome might neglect public health guidance,” the WHO said.
” The use of such certificates may therefore increase the dangers of ongoing transmission.”
WHO likewise believes that the serological tests currently utilized “need extra recognition to determine their accuracy and dependability”.
In specific, the tests need to make it possible to distinguish the immune action to the novel coronavirus from the antibodies produced throughout an infection by another of the six recognized human coronaviruses, 4 of which are extensive, causing mild colds.
The other two are responsible for MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) and SARS (Extreme Acute Respiratory Syndrome).
” Individuals infected with one or the other of these viruses can producing antibodies which communicate with antibodies produced in reaction to infection triggered by SARS-CoV-2″, said WHO, emphasizing the importance of being able to determine them.
