The combination of COVID-19 infection and recovery and vaccination causes one to have a higher antibody response
Jakarta (ANTARA) - The health protocols remain important for fighting the pandemic despite the development of hybrid immunity among people who have recovered from COVID-19, an academic has said.



The term hybrid immunity is more appropriate than super immunity, which is commonly used in public discourse, to describe the immunity developed by two sources: natural infection and vaccination, a pulmonologist and member of Airlangga University's Faculty of Medicine, Dr. Helmia Hasan, observed.



"The combination of COVID-19 infection and recovery and vaccination causes one to have a higher antibody response," Hasan said during an online discussion on Saturday.



Theoretically, a person who has recovered from COVID-19 and then received the COVID-19 vaccine will have a low risk of a repeat infection, she added.


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Both natural infection and vaccination create neutralizing antibodies that become the main protection against COVID-19, the academic noted.



Those who have developed hybrid immunity will see their memory B cells—which function to memorize the characteristics of foreign substances to produce antibodies—increase by five to tenfold compared to those who have been made immune only by natural infection or vaccination, she explained.



The neutralizing antibodies in people with hybrid immunity will be 100 times higher than in people without hybrid immunity, she added.


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"Someone with hybrid immunity will seldom suffer from a severe symptom and be reinfected with the same disease compared with people who do not have hybrid immunity," the pulmonologist said.



Despite the prevalence of hybrid immunity in some sections of society, Hasan reiterated the importance of health protocols, saying new COVID-19 variants could compromise hybrid immunity and cause infection.



"We must maintain our health protocols because we have no idea about the antibodies or cells inside our body. Hence, to prevent reinfection, we need health protocols," she remarked.


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Translator: Prisca Triferna V, Nabil Ihsan
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
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