Data from nearly 500,000 US veterans found that repeated infections also increase the chance of problems with a person’s lungs, heart, brain, blood, muscles and digestive system. People who were infected with the virus more than once were twice as likely to die and three times more likely to be hospitalized compared to people who were infected only once. Those who were repeatedly infected were three and a half times more likely to end up with lung problems, three times more likely to develop heart disease and one and a half times more likely to develop brain problems, compared to those who contracted the virus. once. The risk appears to increase with each infection, with an infected patient three times more at risk than a twice-infected Covid patient.
People must remain “vigilant”
Researchers from the University of Washington said some people developed an “air of invincibility” after Covid and their piercings. “Some people started to refer to these people as having a kind of hypersensitivity to the virus,” said Professor Ziyad Al-Ali, an author of the study. “Unambiguously, our research showed that being infected a second, third or fourth time contributes to additional health risks in the first 30 days after infection and in the following months. “Even if you’ve had two Covid-19 infections, it’s better to avoid a third, and if you’ve had three infections, it’s better to avoid a fourth.” He added that the findings suggest that people should remain “vigilant” and continue to wear masks, as well as update their vaccinations. The study, published in Nature Medicine, involved a database of 5.8 million anonymized medical records from the US. The team focused on the health outcomes of 443,000 people who tested positive once and 41,000 people who were infected twice or more between March 2020 and April 2022.
Fears of a coming epidemic
Writing in the paper, the study authors said they believe this study is the first of its kind. “Evidence suggests that reinfection further increases the risks of death, hospitalization, and sequelae in multiple organ systems in the acute and post-acute phase,” the authors wrote. “Reducing the overall burden of death and disease due to Sars-CoV-2 will require strategies to prevent reinfection.” Experts have warned of a double flu and Covid epidemic this winter, but the rapid development of the Covid boost campaign has seen the number of Covid hospitalizations almost halve in less than a month. Admission rates also continue to fall, with health experts describing the figures as “extremely encouraging”. A total of 5,647 patients who tested positive for the coronavirus were in hospital by 8am on November 9, according to NHS England. That’s down 23 percent from the previous week, but also down 47 percent from 10,688 on Oct. 17.
