Login to South West London Pathology Services

If you have any queries about pathology consumables – you need a new account or you have a query about your order, please telephone 020 8266 6827. Forgotten your password

New research shows that previous Covid-19 infection offers up to 94% protection from reinfection

A study carried out by Microbiologists at St George’s Hospital, using test data from South West London Pathology (SWLP) laboratories, shows that patients with laboratory evidence of Covid-19 in the first wave of the pandemic were 94% protected against reinfection in the second wave.

The team looked at the laboratory records of 66,001 patients between March and December 2020 and of the 10,727 patients who were infected during the first wave (between February and July 2020), as shown by either by a positive Covid-19 PCR test or a positive antibody test, only eight were re-infected during the second wave (August to December).

This research supports findings from the SIREN study released this week (14 January 2021), which found that previous infection provides 83% protection from reinfection for at least five months. However, researchers from both studies have warned that reinfection is possible and that even those with antibody protection could transmit the virus to others.

The results used for the research came from the SWLP microbiology laboratories, based at St George’s Hospital in Tooting, which serve four hospitals and a population of 1.3 million across south west London. The service is currently running over 1,000 tests a day from patients and staff across the four hospitals and this number is set to increase over the coming months.

Dr. Aodhán Breathnach, a microbiologist at St George’s Hospital who designed the study, says “The overall message coming from the research is a rare bit of good news, which we desperately need in these difficult times. We now know that patients who are infected by the virus do have a high level of protection from the virus for many months.”

We still need to be careful, because immunity may decrease with time, but I am hopeful that this study and other similar work such as SIREN are small steps on the road back to normality”

Latest news

April 6, 2023

Immucor live at Croydon Hospital for blood transfusion

On Wednesday (4 April), the Croydon blood transfusion service went live with the Immucor system. Immucor is the leading provider of transfusion and transplantation diagnostic products in the UK. The new system is fully automated and has high accuracy.

Read more
April 4, 2023

Hepatitis B and C screening in ED

In line with national guidance, Hepatitis B and C screening has now been introduced at Croydon Hospital. The purpose of the initiative is to identify cases of these diseases in patients who may not know they have them, so treatment can be offered early.

Read more
November 4, 2022

Immunology services at St George’s and Epsom and St Helier Hospitals merging

Immunology services at St George’s and Epsom and St Helier Hospitals are merging into one service, which will be located at St George’s Hospital. This is taking place during October and November. 

Read more
October 17, 2022

Microbiology services at SWLP live with a new Laboratory Information Management System

Microbiology at SWLP successfully went live with the new system on Monday 10 October. This marks a significant achievement for teams within SWLP and across the four trusts who have worked extremely hard to make this happen.

Read more