An interesting preprint by Bradley and others in MedRxiv looked at this issue.
Current guidelines recommend that individuals who have had COVID-19 should receive the identical vaccine regime as those who have not had infection.
This includes two doses of the mRNA platform vaccines, Pfizer and Moderna.
The authors showed that after a single dose of the Pfizer SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, individuals that had had prior SARS-CoV-2 infection had a significantly higher antibody level than individuals that had no history of infection.
The research showed that those who had had SARS-CoV-2 infection 30-60 days prior to vaccination had a significantly higher antibody level at three weeks post infection than those with no prior infection.
After the first vaccine dose, both previously infected and uninfected individuals antibody titres were enhanced to all proteins.
The authors suggested that the vaccination policy could be changed to deliver only a single dose to individuals with recent SARS-CoV-2 infections and thus may free up additional doses for individuals that have no pre-existing immunity to the virus.
Dr Paul Ettlinger
BM, DRCOG, FRCGP, FRIPH, DOccMed