Repeated COVID-19 infection could result in severe health consequences including organ failure, death, and even death.
A new study done by Washington University School of Medicineand Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care network found that those who have been infected multiple times with the virus were twice as likely and three times as likely to be hospitalized than those who had it once.
Published in Nature Medicine, the study also revealed that patients who have had repeated bouts of chemotherapy were three and a quarter times more likely (and three times as likely) to develop lung conditions, three times as likely (and three times as likely) to develop heart problems, and 1.6x less likely (and more likely) to treat brain conditions.
Dr. Ziyad Aly, senior author, stated that “over the past few months there’s been an atmosphere of invincibility among patients who have received COVID-19 or boosters of their vaccines and people who have also had an infection; some people started referring t these individuals as having a kind of superimmunity against the virus.”
He added: “Without any ambiguity, we found that getting infected a second, third, or even fourth time can lead to increased health risks in both the acute phase (the first 30 days) and in the COVID phase (the months after).
The study examined 5.8 Million medical records of patients from all races, ages, and genders. The study included patients with repeat infections, people who had the disease once or never infected.
In the latter group, people had two or three infections while a smaller percentage had four. Both Omicron as well as Delta variants were taken into account in the study.
This means that even though you have had two COVID-19 infection, it is best to avoid a third. Al-Aly stated that it’s better to avoid the third infection if you already have two.
This study follows the announcement by the World Health Organization Wednesday of a 90% drop in COVID-19-related deaths globally compared with the high number recorded in February.