Coronavirus patients often develop long-term impaired cellular immunity, resulting in increased susceptibility to re-infection, as well as incomplete development of resistance to COVID-19, Report states, citing a study by University of Alabama researchers published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
During the study, immune cells were taken from the blood of 46 hospitalized people and 39 home-isolated infected ones and compared with samples from healthy volunteers.
As a result, many virus carriers have significantly weakened immune cells, making them less resistant to new infectious diseases.
It was also unexpected that individuals with mild COVID-19 symptoms had a longer immunodeficiency duration than those hospitalized. This rule is especially evident in the elderly.
"These results show the changes that the immune system undergoes during COVID-19 and provide a basis for the possibility of longer-term disorders of the immune system," the article reads.