Thursday, 25 Mar 2021 09:21 AM MYTSubscribe to ourSINGAPORE, March 25 — Antibodies that protect against Covid-19 wane at different rates, lasting mere days in some individuals but remaining in others for decades, a Singapore study has found.
And if immunity provided via vaccines wanes like naturally-produced antibodies from a past infection, then annual vaccinations could be necessary to prevent future outbreaks of Covid-19. But they added that further studies would be needed to clarify the findings as vaccine programmes are rolled out.The researchers followed 164 Covid-19 patients in Singapore for up to nine months, analysing their blood for neutralising antibodies — the proteins responsible for defending cells from Covid-19 pathogens.
“This work may have implications for immunity longevity after vaccination, which will be part of our follow-up studies,” said Prof Wang.T-cells are a type of white blood cell that works with antibodies to eradicate pathogens such as the Sars-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19.