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Those who recover from even mild cases of COVID-19 often possess elevated autoantibody levels that may cause the body to mistakenly attack itself months after infection, a new study suggests.
The autoimmune phenomena was identified in a study involving health care workers who had contracted the coronavirus early on in the pandemic, before vaccines became widely available. The study, published in the the Journal of Translational Medicine, found that among 177 health care workers who had recovered from COVID-19, all had persistent autoantibodies months after infection, including some which can cause injury to organs and tissues.
The study builds on existing research that identifies persistent autoimmunity after COVID-19 infection, revealing sex-specific variations. While males carry the risk of autoimmune activation following symptomatic COVID-19 infection, females carry the risk of autoimmune activation following asymptomatic coronavirus exposure, the study found.
Cartoons on the Coronavirus
According to the study, the findings contribute to a growing body of evidence related to long COVID, a range of ongoing health problems people report experiencing after contracting the virus that causes COVID-19.
The conversation surrounding long-term COVID-19 symptoms has gained traction in recent weeks, as infection rates have soared amid the omicron variant and as some have grappled with the reality that infection may be inevitable. But very little remains understood about long COVID, experts say. And the new variant, although research shows it appears milder than other variants, still poses a risk of long-term symptoms.
Leading infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said during a December press briefing that, while information on omicron and long COVID remains limited, he “would not expect it’s going to be any different than we have with delta.”
“But we’ll have to wait to see until we get more experience,” he said.