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In some rare cases, breakthrough infections can cause persistent symptoms.
“Long Covid” is a poorly understood group of symptoms that can plague people for several months after an active infection has ended. While these symptoms eventually improve in many patients, “there is this subset of people who have had Covid for a long time and have never recovered,” said Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale University.
Only a few small studies have investigated how widespread or severe Covid can be after breakthrough infections. It’s likely to be rare, said Dr. Iwasaki, because breakthrough infections are rare to start and shorter in duration.
in one study in israelOf the 36 people with breakthrough infections, about seven had symptoms that had persisted for more than six weeks. and one Survey of survivors of Covid-19reported persistent problems from 44 people, 24 of whom had symptomatic breakthrough infections.
Dr. “We really need broader national and even international research,” Iwasaki said.
Breakthrough infections can provide an unexpected advantage.
If you survive a breakthrough infection relatively unscathed, you’re likely to walk away with more robust protection against variants. Researchers say the infection essentially acts as a booster shot, boosting your immune system’s ability to recognize and fight the virus.
Studies show that when people who have recovered from Covid-19 receive even one dose of the vaccine, antibody levels skyrocketed. Dr. “I expect similar things to happen when you have a breakthrough infection,” Iwasaki said.
Vaccines train the immune system to recognize part of the original virus, a strategy that could leave us vulnerable to future variants. However, Dr. Each exposure expands her immune repertoire, Mina said.
Eventually, through booster vaccines or repeated infections, our bodies will gain enough virus training to counteract the versions with the new mutations, “But we’re not there yet,” he said.
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