Are you able to be re-infected with coronavirus?
The researchers characterize the clinical, immunological and virological aspects of patients who tested positive for coronavirus again.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic continues to weigh on social, economic and health systems. As more becomes known about the respiratory syndrome, interventions and preventive measures will be put in place to slow its spread. However, there is a knowledge gap regarding re-positive cases of coronavirus, re-infection and their health effects.
A recent study is helping shed light on the clinical and immunological characterization of COVID-19 patients who tested positive for coronavirus again.
The researchers characterized data from 619 re-positive COVID-19 cases in Guangdong, China from January to March 2020. Patients who tested negative for COVID-19 after being hospitalized were continuously isolated and screened. Of these, 87 cases tested positive for coronavirus again and then returned to hospital. 70 of the re-positive cases were then assessed using serum and swab samples. Virus RNA was detected by RT-PCR, neutralization tests identified antibody levels and additional lung exams were performed by computed tomography.
Re-positive COVID-19 cases do not appear to have an active infection
During the hospital stay, the initial diagnosis of the future re-positive cases resulted in 46 patients with mild and 41 with moderate symptoms. At discharge, 77 re-positive cases were asymptomatic, while 10 showed only one unproductive cough that was aggravated at night. Antibody titer reports showed effective immune activation in all individuals; They were in the normal range of 4> 1024. Further laboratory analysis revealed a lack of infectious coronavirus strains as well as full-length viral genomes.
Because patients are isolated after discharge from the hospital, there is a small chance that re-positive cases of coronavirus will occur as a result of a secondary viral infection (re-infection). Possible causes for re-positive tests could be due to insufficient initial immune responses – an inability to neutralize antibodies to completely clear the infection. However, antibody titer tests confirmed that this was not the case. In addition, the researchers were unable to identify intact viral genomes that would produce infectious strains in patients with re-positive coronavirus. The implications of these results suggest that people who test positive for coronavirus again are at reduced risk of transmission.
The cause of re-infection with coronavirus is a growing problem. The renewed positive detection of coronavirus is required for the implementation of protective measures for public health. Understanding the immunological aspects of the virus will help improve self-isolation and equipping times for hospital facilities. With more information and knowledge about COVID-19, there can be vast improvements in public education, resource allocation, and efforts to flatten the curve.
Written by Melody Sayrany
Reference:
- Lu, J., Peng, J., Xiong, Q., Liu, Z., Lin, H., Tan, X.,. . . Ke, C. (2020). Clinical, immunological and virological characterization of COVID-19 patients who were tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 again using RT-PCR. EBiomedicine. doi: 10.1101 / 2020.06.15.20131748
Image by fernando zhiminaicela from Pixabay
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