A young and healthy man has become the first confirmed case of reinfection with Covid-19 in the US . While expert have been prompt to stress that reinfections currently appear to be relatively rare , this case is specially unusual as the affected role was hit hard by the virus during the second infection .
Published inThe Lancet Infectious Diseases , the Modern case study account a 25 - year - old man in Nevada with no known resistant disorderliness or inherent conditions who had two positively charged test for SARS - CoV-2 within a 48 - mean solar day timeframe , first on April 18 and then on June 5 .
To confirm this was in reality two distinct SARS - CoV-2 infections and not simply a singlelingeringillness , scientist looked at the genome of the affected role ’s two virus sample distribution and found they display substantial inherited differences . Reinfection is rarified , there have been only four confirmed case prior to this , but the more severe symptom second sentence around raises questions aboutimmunity built up from antibodies .
“ Our findings signal that a previous infection may not necessarily protect against future infection , " Dr Mark Pandori from the University of Nevada said in an emailed command . " The possibility of reinfections could have pregnant implications for our understanding of Covid-19 exemption . "
After the patient role had recover from testing positively charged for Covid-19 six weeks to begin with , the second infection was more stark and resulted in him require oxygen support after being hospitalise . This suffer in contrast to premature reports of reinfectionfrom Hong Kong , Belgium , and the Netherlands that have shown people ’s second reinfection was less rough , which scientists presumed was because they had developed some level of immunity to the condition . Instead , this Modern report from the US mirrorsa reportfrom Ecuador that establish a more severe second lawsuit .
It remains strange how usual reinfection really is . However , over 37 million people have had Covid-19 and just a handful of reinfections have been reported , so it seems that the risk is downcast . instead , since this outbreak is less than a class old , it could simply be that we just have n’t descend across the cases yet . It ’s thought that many more Covid-19 cases have occurred than have been reported , for a multitude of reasons . The study authors and independent expert urge people to rest open-eyed about transmission and take all necessary care , even if you ’ve had the computer virus already .
“ Initial over - sure-footed predictions that once you ’d had it , you could n’t get it again , were opinions rather than facts,”commentedProfessor Brendan Wren , Professor of Vaccinology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine , who was not involved in the new case study .
“ It might prove to be a rare phenomenon , but it ’s equally possible that these could be the first few cases and that there are many more to come . ”
Professor Paul Hunter , a Professor in Medicine from the University of East Anglia , believe that it ’s “ too early to say ” what the implications of this may be for any Covid-19 vaccine program . It certainly raises some questions over whether a Covid-19 vaccinum will provide total and longstanding protection for all patients .
“ There is currently no grounds that a SARS - CoV-2 variant has emerged as a result of resistant evasion . For now , one vaccine will be sufficient to confabulate shelter against all circulating stochastic variable , ” Profesor Akiko Iwasaki from Yale University , wrote ina commentaryaccompanying the case study .
