A doctor from the Chinese Health Commission warns that certain recovered coronavirus patients might be prone to reinfection .   However , before you panic , it ’s worth stressing that this risk of relapse is dependable of any infection , not a unique feature of the current coronavirus eruption .

" The antibody will be beget ; however , in sure individuals , the antibody can not last that long , " Zhan Qingyuan , theatre director of pneumonia prevention and discussion at the China - Japan Friendship Hospital , said at a press conference on Friday , report byCGTN ,   a Taiwanese state of matter - owned media wall socket .

” For those patients who have been cure , there is a likeliness of a relapse . For healed patients , they should also tackle their own health safeguards . ”

When the body becomes infected , the immune organization produces protein call up antibodies that hold fast to and neutralize the pathogen . This physical process need the antibody   to have a specific social organisation   to tie down to the particular pathogen it ’s seek to quench . If you ’ve already been infect by a specific pathogen , your immune system will “ remember ” the pathogen and effectively have the relevant antibody ready to go , thereby protect you against another contagion .

Despite common knowledge , it is potential to catchthe same computer virus doubly . Some pathogens , most notably flu , are able to mutate exceedingly quickly , rendering the previous antibodies partly or totally useless . This is one of the reasonableness why you are encourage to get a flu jab annually , as your immunity can become redundant by the time next twelvemonth ’s flu season   arrives .

So , as with any infection , John Rock - solid lifelong immunity is never guaranteed . However , that is no reason to panic .

“ Certainlysomepeople in any population do not mount a full resistant response and may be at repeated risk , but this would be dependable of any transmission they caught , not just the new coronavirus , ” Ian Jones , prof of virology at the University of Reading , order IFLScience .

“ So the in general accepted view would be that once the computer virus has swept through a population , or that universe has been vaccinated , the incidence of disease would flow dramatically and the computer virus would not be calculating wide . In that case , even still susceptible the great unwashed would be unlucky to encounter it . ”

Many uncertainties still hang overthe current outbreakof the Wuhan coronavirus , 2019 - nCoV , which began in December 2019 . Just this calendar week , a account in one of the world ’s most esteemed scientific journal wasretractedas it falsely claimed the fresh coronavirus can be convey by people who do n’t show any symptoms .

As of 4 phase modulation GMT on February 5 , there are at least 24,613confirmed casesof the novel coronavirus across the world , over 24,390 of which are in mainland China . There have also been over 494 deaths , the overwhelming majority of which have occurred in mainland China , surpassing the telephone number of people that died in mainland China during the 2002 - 2003 SARS outbreak ( 349 deaths ) .