RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Both natural immunity and vaccine-induced immunity to COVID-19 may be useful to reduce the mortality/morbidity of this disease, but still a lot of controversy exists. AIMS: This narrative review analyzes the literature regarding these two immunitary processes and more specifically: (a) the duration of natural immunity; (b) cellular immunity; (c) cross-reactivity; (d) the duration of post-vaccination immune protection; (e) the probability of reinfection and its clinical manifestations in the recovered patients; (f) the comparisons between vaccinated and unvaccinated as to the possible reinfections; (g) the role of hybrid immunity; (h) the effectiveness of natural and vaccine-induced immunity against Omicron variant; (i) the comparative incidence of adverse effects after vaccination in recovered individuals vs. COVID-19-naïve subjects. MATERIAL AND METHODS: through multiple search engines we investigated COVID-19 literature related to the aims of the review, published since April 2020 through July 2022, including also the previous articles pertinent to the investigated topics. RESULTS: nearly 900 studies were collected, and 246 pertinent articles were included. It was highlighted that the vast majority of the individuals after suffering from COVID-19 develop a natural immunity both of cell-mediated and humoral type, which is effective over time and provides protection against both reinfection and serious illness. Vaccine-induced immunity was shown to decay faster than natural immunity. In general, the severity of the symptoms of reinfection is significantly lower than in the primary infection, with a lower degree of hospitalizations (0.06%) and an extremely low mortality. CONCLUSIONS: this extensive narrative review regarding a vast number of articles highlighted the valuable protection induced by the natural immunity after COVID-19, which seems comparable or superior to the one induced by anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. Consequently, vaccination of the unvaccinated COVID-19-recovered subjects may not be indicated. Further research is needed in order to: (a) measure the durability of immunity over time; (b) evaluate both the impacts of Omicron BA.5 on vaccinated and healed subjects and the role of hybrid immunity.
RESUMO
In this study, ammonia stripping by means of a turbulent mixing process followed by pH neutralization was investigated as a simple and cost-effective ammonia removal technique to treat raw manure digestate. Batch tests conducted using CaO, NaOH and H2O2 to control pH and temperature and combinations thereof showed that sodium hydroxide was the most suitable chemical, as it is easy to handle, minimizes treatment time and costs, does not increase the solid content of the sludge and allows to easily control the stripping process. NaOH dosage mainly depended on buffering capacity rather than on total solid content. The analysis of the ammonia stripping process indicated that ammonia removal was strongly dependent on pH, and ammonia removal rate followed the pseudo-first-order kinetics. Total solid content slightly influenced TAN removal efficiency. When NaOH was applied to treat raw digestate at pH 10 and mean temperature of 23 ± 2 °C, TAN removal efficiency reached 88.7% after 24 h of turbulent mixing stripping, without reaching inhibitory salinity levels. Moreover, pH neutralization with sulfuric acid following the stripping process improved raw digestate dewaterability.