I tested positive for Covid-19 first week of April. I tested positive for antibodies in May. I tested positive again for antibodies last week. Which is more likely:
1. My body continues to produce antibodies a half year after I was infected?
2. I was infected a second time, and my body produced antibodies against the second, more recent, infection, resulting in my being asymptomatic?
I think there's not enough information to give a definitive answer, though. One thing worth keeping in mind is that there is substantial individual variation in terms of antibody responses, and any decay in your antibody levels would begin around the time that your infection truly resolved, something that I'm not sure we can currently measure.
It's possible that you have maintained detectable antibodies this entire time, particularly if you had a strong immune response.
It is also possible that you experienced a reexposure and fought off a second infection with SARS-CoV-2.
One way to obtain a clue as to which it is would be to compare the levels of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies that were detected in your blood in both your test in May as well as your recent test. If the test in May had higher levels than the recent test, I would say both possibilities are still on the table. If the recent test had substantially higher levels than the test in May, however, I would suspect that you had been reexposed and had an additional subsequent immune response.
Unfortunately I don't know if testing companies are even reporting this kind of information. I wish I could be more helpful.
I tested positive for Covid-19 first week of April. I tested positive for antibodies in May. I tested positive again for antibodies last week. Which is more likely:
1. My body continues to produce antibodies a half year after I was infected?
2. I was infected a second time, and my body produced antibodies against the second, more recent, infection, resulting in my being asymptomatic?
Great questions, Robert!
I think there's not enough information to give a definitive answer, though. One thing worth keeping in mind is that there is substantial individual variation in terms of antibody responses, and any decay in your antibody levels would begin around the time that your infection truly resolved, something that I'm not sure we can currently measure.
It's possible that you have maintained detectable antibodies this entire time, particularly if you had a strong immune response.
It is also possible that you experienced a reexposure and fought off a second infection with SARS-CoV-2.
One way to obtain a clue as to which it is would be to compare the levels of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies that were detected in your blood in both your test in May as well as your recent test. If the test in May had higher levels than the recent test, I would say both possibilities are still on the table. If the recent test had substantially higher levels than the test in May, however, I would suspect that you had been reexposed and had an additional subsequent immune response.
Unfortunately I don't know if testing companies are even reporting this kind of information. I wish I could be more helpful.
I checked the test results, and it does not specify the antibody levels, just a positive or negative result.