Patients recovering from severe lung infections develop “immunological scars” that stifle their body’s immune response and heighten their risk of contracting pneumonia, a common killer of COVID-19 sufferers, researchers said Monday.
Studies in both humans and mice showed that the body’s immune response is temporarily switched off after some severe infections, rendering patients more vulnerable to new bacterial or viral diseases.
A team of researchers from the University of Melbourne’s Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity and the University Hospital of Nantes found that the cells that form the immune system’s first line of defence—macrophages—were “paralysed” after severe infection.
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