Antibody protection after mild COVID-19 may not last; an estimated 100 mln people have had long COVID --new studies

Antibody protection after mild COVID-19 may not last; an estimated 100 mln people have had long COVID The following is a summary of some recent studies on COVID-19. They include research that warrants further study to corroborate the findings and that has yet to be certified by peer review. Nancy Lapid Reuters

Nov 17 (Reuters) - The following is a summary of some recent studies on COVID-19. They include research that warrants further study to corroborate the findings and that has yet to be certified by peer review.

Antibody protection from mild COVID-19 may not last

Nearly everyone who had a mild case of COVID-19 still has antibodies to the coronavirus a year later, but that might not protect them from new variants, a small study suggests. Among 43 Australians who dealt with mild COVID-19 early in the pandemic, 90% still had antibodies 12 months later. But only 51.2% had antibodies that showed "neutralizing activity" against the original version of the virus and only 44.2% had antibodies that could neutralize the early Alpha variant, the research team at the University of Adelaide reported on Thursday on medRxiv ahead of peer review. ...

100 million have or had long COVID, study estimates

More than 40% of COVID-19 survivors worldwide have had lingering after-effects of the illness, researchers from the University of Michigan estimate, based on their review of 40 earlier studies from 17 countries that looked at patients' experiences with so-called long COVID, defined as new or persistent symptoms at four or more weeks after infection. The prevalence rises to 57% among survivors who required hospitalization, the researchers reported on Tuesday on medRxiv ahead of peer review. The rate was 49% among female survivors and 37% among males, they said. The estimated long COVID rate was 49% in Asia, 44% in Europe and 30% in North America. Among the most common problems, fatigue was estimated to affect 23%, while shortness of breath, joint pain and memory problems each affected 13%....

Virus' effect on blood-thinning molecules causes clots

Dangerous blood clots often seen in patients with COVID-19 happen at least in part because the spike on the virus attaches itself to molecules in the blood that play key roles in preventing clotting, thereby inactivating them, new research shows. ..