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Coronavirus infection causes long-lasting disruptions in the immune system recover from. This was reported by scientists from the Institute of Virology of Wuhan city

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Coronavirus infection causes long-lasting disruptions in the immune system recover from. This was reported by scientists from the Institute of Virology of Wuhan city. Research data published on the website medRxiv.

Scientists have studied the health of 55 patients of different age and sex who have had COVID-19 and found they have lower levels of lymphocytes – the blood cells responsible for immunity. Lymphocytes did not recover even at the 11th week after recovery, which, according to scientists, indicates a strong effect of the virus on the blood cells and potential violations of the immune system.

Russian scientists confirmed the “news” that coronavirus infection can lead to a decrease in lymphocytes. However, according to them, the loss mechanisms of these cells are still poorly understood, and the permanent loss of lymphocytes may be caused not only chronic infections.

Head of the laboratory of genomic engineering MIPT Pavel Volchkov said that after the coronavirus that causes dysfunction of the immune system can be long, but it is still reversible. When a person infected with a new pathogen, his body going expansion of lymphocytes after an infection in the body is a kind of deactivation of immune cells, which explains the fluctuations in their numbers. However, these fluctuations are quickly restored by new cells.

Other experts explained that COVID-19 may cause a temporary loss of immunity but cannot cause HIV or AIDS, because it can not multiply in the immune cells. However, a careful study of infectious process in the organism of patients with coronavirus can provide important data on the development of a full immune response or difficulties in this process.

Some experts have already compared the new type of coronavirus with HIV and even talked about their similarities. In particular, Nobel prize winner 2008, French virologist Luc Montagnier has stated a laboratory origin COVID-19 and that its genome contains elements of HIV. Later, however, these ideas were heavily criticized by the scientific community. According to experts, when HIV affects cells of the immune system, while coronavirus affects all the organs and tissues. In addition, to date there is no case of coronavirus, which would be moved from the acute to the chronic phase.