risk of death rises each time you have covid, study says
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researchers found that people who experienced multiple covid-19 reinfections were twice as likely to die. getty
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a new study has found that the risk of adverse health conditions — including organ failure and death — increases each time a person is reinfected by covid-19.
the research, published in the journal nature medicine, cautions that previous infection or vaccination against sars-cov-2 does not make people invincible to the ongoing threat. each subsequent encounter with the virus raises the risk of serious complications, including hospitalization, death or the development of disorders affecting the lungs, brain, heart and the body’s blood, musculoskeletal and gastrointestinal systems. multiple infections can also contribute to diabetes, kidney disease and mental health issues.
“during the past few months, there’s been an air of invincibility among people who have had covid-19 or their vaccinations and boosters — and especially among people who have had an infection and also received vaccines; some people started to referring to these individuals as having a sort of superimmunity to the virus,” said ziyad al-aly, senior author of the study and a clinical epidemiologist at the washington university school of medicine in st. louis.
“without ambiguity, our research showed that getting an infection a second, third or fourth time contributes to additional health risks in the acute phase — meaning the first 30 days after infection — and in the months beyond, meaning the long covid phase.”
every time a person is reinfected by the virus, this risk rises. “this means that even if you’ve had two covid-19 infections, it’s better to avoid a third,” al-aly said. “and if you’ve had three infections, it’s best to avoid the fourth.”
to arrive at their results, the team analyzed roughly 5.8 million de-identified medical records, containing a wide range of ages, races and sexes, maintained by the u.s. department of veteran’s affairs. they narrowed this down to 5.3 million people who did not test positive for the virus between march 1, 2020 and april 6, 2022.
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using the same timeframe, they compiled a control group of more than 443,000 people who tested positive for the virus and another group of around 41,000 people who had two or more documented infections. of this 41,000, most people had had two or three infections, a small percentage had four and no one had five or more.
they used statistical modelling to determine the health risks of repeated covid infections in the first 30 days of contracting the illness and up to six months afterwards. they were able to account for multiple covid variants, including delta, omicron and ba.5.
they found that people who experienced multiple covid-19 reinfections were twice as likely to die and three times more likely to be sent to the hospital than those who managed to avoid reinfection. people with multiple infections were also 3.5 times more likely to develop lung problems, three times more likely to suffer heart conditions and 1.6 times more likely to encounter brain conditions than those only infected once.
“our findings have broad public health implications as they tell us that strategies to prevent or reduce the risk of reinfection should be implemented,” al-aly said. “going into the winter season, people should be aware of the risks and practice vigilance to reduce their risk of infection or reinfection with sars-cov-2.
“people should do their best to prevent repeat infections by masking, for example, getting all of their eligible boosters, staying home when sick. also, get a flu shot to prevent illness. we really need to do our best to reduce the chance we will have a twin-demic of both covid-19 and the flu this winter season.”
dave yasvinski is a writer with healthing.ca
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