A Brazilian study shows that most people who are infected with the dengue virus are unlikely to catch the Zika virus. Understand!
A group of researchers, including Brazilians, published a scientific article in Science showing that, probably, people who are infected with the Dengue virus can gain immunity against the Zika virus. The work shows that the organism that has gone through dengue creates antibodies capable of preventing Zika from developing in the body’s cells.
The place where the study took place was in Pau de Lima, located in Salvador, Bahia. The research involved 1,453 favela residents. This community has been in direct contact with dengue for at least thirty years and, in 2015, was one of the most affected in Brazil with the Zika outbreak.
The research consisted of collecting blood from employees before, during and after the Zika epidemic. All blood was subjected to antibody testing. The result was that contact with dengue increases immunity against Zika.
About the Zika virus
Brazilian doctor Ernesto Azevedo Marques, from the Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at the University of Pittsburgh, in the United States, and one of the authors of the study, states that despite the drop in chances, it does not reach zero. In other words, although small, there is still a probability of it happening. The doctor states that the two infectious agents are from the same family, generating a similarity between the two.
Previously, it was believed that this similarity was harmful to humans, however, the opposite was proven. “In these cases, the antibodies that the immune system produces the first time against one of the subtypes of the dengue virus do not neutralize the others efficiently. Infection with a subtype generates a cross-reaction against the other varieties, which increases the severity of the infection”, explains Marques.
People who have had a previous dengue infection do not suffer a worsening case of Zika if they catch it. The only possible exception is pregnant women. Don’t study ready-made studies on this case, and we know that the Zika virus is largely responsible for the birth of children with microcephaly.
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Source: Health
Imagem: Airflow
