The development of corona virus vaccine is definitely great news for all the people worldwide as it will be the ultimate solution for the spreading of coronavirus that has killed millions of people. In most countries, the covid 19 vaccination programmes have been divided into phases where the fronliners will get the shot first, followed by those with high risk and finally followed by those who are 18 years and above. This concept can be slightly different according to your country vaccination guideline.
However, the question here is, do people who were infected by covid 19 infection earlier, will need to get the vaccination shot as well? Continue reading this article to know the answer.
Do you Still Need to be Vaccinated?
The answer will be a yes! Based on a meeting held by the Disease Control and Prevention unit in December 2020, it was reported that vaccination for those infected earlier will be necessary. Clinical trials from different stages also proved that there were no major side effects of vaccination for post infected patients.
Let’s learn more about our body’s natural way of building immunity and why vaccination will be pretty helpful in this condition.
Our body immune system is made up of organs like the lymphatic systems, spleen, thymus and many more. They function to produce cells which fight against infections. Immunity is the ability of your own body to keep yourself protected from infection. It is true that once you are infected, your immune cells will keep the memory to produce more antibodies to fight against the same disease in the future. However, in covid 19 situation, many doctors and researchers are unsure about the level of immunity achieved by the body post infection as different and unreliable titre levels of antibodies were detected in different post infected patients.
Apart from that, it is also said that these immune cells will only keep your body protected for the least of 8 months. Thus, there are high chances for you to get infected by the same covid 19 virus in the near future. In conclusion, this explains why you should get vaccinated even after being infected by covid 19 virus previously.
What are the Side Effects of Vaccination for the Post Infected?
There are few studies reported around the world that the side effects of vaccination are slightly stronger for those post infected compared to those who were not infected with the virus previously. One study by The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has reported that post infected patients complained of headache, lethargy, chills, fever and muscle pain after the first shot which is more often compared to those not infected. Besides, it was also noticed that post infected patients have higher titre of antibodies which subsequently proved the efficacy of the covid 19 vaccination.
Another research conducted in Birmingham, reported that the covid 19 vaccination can give different mild to moderate side effects to those infected previously especially after the second shot of vaccination. It was concluded that this shows the effectiveness of the vaccine in developing stronger immune systems toward the virus. However, it could not be concluded that who will get the side effects and who will not as this is entirely dependent on the body immune system level.
In the nut shell, post-infected patients are advised to get their vaccination shot as well as it is proved that your body immune cells memories only last for months post infection. Thus, it is vital for you to get vaccinated. Besides, the side effects reported were not much different in intensity and severity compared to those not infected previously.