• Question: if you become immune to certain viruses once you've had it, then if a pregnant woman gets a virus, survives and becomes immune, then will the baby be immune to that virus as well?

    Asked by anon-255144 on 13 Jul 2020.
    • Photo: Sonia Rodriguez

      Sonia Rodriguez answered on 13 Jul 2020:

      Hi Matthew! We become immune to diseases once our immune cells have learnt to produce the right antibodies to fight off the disease. When babies are born, they carry some of their mum’s antibodies in their blood. However, they carry the antibodies but not the cells with the instructions to make more of these antibodies. This means that when these antibodies degenerate (they can last for maximum 3 months) the babies are no longer protected against the diseases. Antibodies from the mum can also be shared through the milk, and that’s one of the reasons why breastfeeding is strongly recommended during the first months.
      After that period, the baby needs to be progressively exposed to different microorganisms to generate his/her own immune cells able to produce antibodies for each of the diseases. This resistance can last for years or even for your whole life.

    • Photo: Ashfaq Ahmad

      Ashfaq Ahmad answered on 13 Jul 2020:

      Hi Matthew,
      Once the mother recovers and becomes immune to the virus, some of the anti-viral antibodies will pass from the mother to the baby through the placenta (before birth) or through breastfeeding (after birth), and these antibodies might help the baby to fight the virus. However, this immunity is only temporary in babies and starts to decrease after the first few weeks or months due to the degeneration of the antibodies. For the baby to have long term immunity, he/she must be exposed to the virus or its vaccine, this way the immune cells (especially B-cells) of the baby will produce their own antibodies which can last for a longer time. Hope this answers your question.

    • Photo: Valerie Vancollie

      Valerie Vancollie answered on 14 Jul 2020:

      In addition to what Sonia and Ashfaq have said you may find it interesting that way a baby is born can also have an impact of their immune system.
      There is some early research which shows that babies born vaginally rather than via a caesarian have a different gut microbiome – meaning the bacteria they have is different. This is important as we are learning that the bacteria we carry in our guts is actually quite important in a lot of ways, including to our immune system.
      Therefore a mother has different ways of passing things on to help their baby’s immune system.

Comments