Researchers at the University of Hong Kong have confirmed the first instance of a patient being reinfected with coronavirus a second time, suggesting that immunity to the virus may be short-lived. The 33-year-old male patient tested positive for the virus in March and then again in August after returning to Hong Kong from a trip to Spain. But it’s not all bad news; this man’s case demonstrates that the immune response, while not able to completely ward off a second infection, may be robust enough to prevent less serious illness the second time around.
Almost since the beginning of the pandemic, stories have been popping up in the United States, China, and South Korea from doctors claiming their patients had again tested positive for the virus after recovering. These accounts were anecdotal and the cases never confirmed as two separate infections; they could have resulted from a resurgence of the original infection, or the result of a faulty test result.
But this case out of Hong Kong is different. It is the first proven case of reinfection because genetic sequencing showed that the patient had contracted two separate strains of the virus, in March and in August. Hong Kong researchers said that the strain the patient contracted the second time had been circulating in Europe in July and August.
“The difference here is that the doctors were able to sequence the virus twice to say that this is actually two separate infections. And we haven’t had that information,” Yahoo News Medical Contributor Dr. Dara Kass explains. “We have known since the beginning that there were multiple varieties of the coronavirus in even America. Ones that came from China, ones that came from Europe — and that viruses generally mutate and will have slightly different presentation depending on where you get the infection.”
But experts have cautioned against jumping to conclusions about the study.
“We need to put this into context,” Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead of the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 response, said of the Hong Kong study during a live Q&A on Wednesday.
“I want to reiterate. This is one example out of 23.5 million cases so far.”
WHO and others also emphasize that these findings shouldn’t be all that shocking. Since the early days of the pandemic, WHO has reiterated that precautions like wearing a mask and social distancing should still be taken by those who have recovered from the virus, and that “there is currently no evidence that people who have recovered from COVID-19 and have antibodies are protected from a second infection.”
Subsequent studies have also demonstrated that the form of immunity conveyed by antibodies (proteins that help fight off infections, carried in blood plasma) may be short lived. A U.K. study published on July 11, which had not yet been peer-reviewed, found that antibodies may start to decline 20 to 30 days after the onset of COVID-19 symptoms. And a Chinese study.....CONTINUE READING
SOURCE YAHOO
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