Likelihood of Post-COVID Condition in people with hybrid immunity

Mikolajczyk, Rafael ; Diexer, Sophie ; Klee, Bianca ; Pfrommer, Laura ; Purschke, Oliver; Fricke, Julia ; Ahnert, Peter ; Gabrysch, Sabine; Gottschick, Cornelia; Bohn, Barbara; Brenner, Hermann; Buck, Christoph; Castell, Stefanie; Gastell, Sylvia; Greiser, Karin Halina; Harth, Volker; Heise, Jana-Kristin; Holleczek, Bernd; Kaaks, Rudolf ; Keil, Thomas; Krist, Lilian; Leitzmann, Michael; Lieb, Wolfgang; Meinke-Franze, Claudia; Michels, Karin B.; Velásquez, Ilais Moreno; Obi, Nadia ; Panreck, Leo; Peters, Annette ; Pischon, Tobias; Schikowski, Tamara; Schmidt, Börge; Standl, Marie; Stang, Andreas ; Völzke, Henry; Weber, Andrea; Zeeb, Hajo und Karch, André (17. Juni 2024): Likelihood of Post-COVID Condition in people with hybrid immunity. Data from the German National Cohort (NAKO). In: Journal of Infection, Bd. 89, Nr. 2, 106206

Abstract

Objectives: The risk of Post-COVID-19 condition (PCC) under hybrid immunity remains unclear.

Methods: Using data from the German National Cohort (NAKO Gesundheitsstudie), we investigated risk factors for self-reported post-infection symptoms (any PCC is defined as having at least one symptom, and high symptom burden PCC as having nine or more symptoms).

Results: Sixty percent of 109,707 participants reported at least one previous SARS-CoV-2 infection; 35% reported having had any symptoms 4–12 months after infection; among them 23% reported nine or more symptoms. Individuals, who did not develop PCC after their first infection, had a strongly reduced risk for PCC after their second infection (50%) and a temporary risk reduction, which waned over 9 months after the preceding infection. The risk of developing PCC strongly depended on the virus variant. Within variants, there was no effect of the number of preceding vaccinations, apart from a strong protection by the fourth vaccination compared to three vaccinations for the Omicron variant (odds ratio = 0.52; 95% confidence interval 0.45–0.61).

Conclusions: Previous infections without PCC and a fourth vaccination were associated with a lower risk of PCC after a new infection, indicating diminished risk under hybrid immunity. The two components of risk reduction after a preceding infection suggest different immunological mechanisms.

• Dokumententyp: Zeitschriftenartikel
• Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; Post-COVID-19 condition; Reinfection; Hybrid immunity; Vaccination
• Fakultät: Medizin > Institut für Medizinische Informationsverarbeitung, Biometrie und Epidemiologie
• Themengebiete: 600 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften > 610 Medizin und Gesundheit
• ISSN: 0163-4453
• Sprache: Englisch