In a new study from San Raffaele hospital in Milan, researchers found that antibodies against the COVID-19 virus remained in the blood of patients with the disease for at least eight months after they were infected.
They were present regardless of the severity of the illness, the age of the patients or the presence of other pathologies.
In the study, the team examined 162 patients with symptomatic coronavirus who turned up at the emergency room during the country’s first wave of infections last year.
Two-thirds of the patients were men, and the average age was 63. About 57% of them had a pre-existing pathology, notably high blood pressure and diabetes.
They examined blood samples in the patients in March and April and again at the end of November from those who survived. Some 29 patients died.
They found the presence of neutralizing antibodies, while reducing overtime, was very persistent.
Eight months after diagnosis, there were only three patients who no longer showed positivity to the test.
The study findings also emphasized the importance of the development of antibodies in recovering from coronavirus.
The team says those who failed to produce them within the first 15 days of infection are at greater risk of developing severe forms of Covid-19.
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