COVID-19 Reinfection in a Healthcare Worker; Is There a Definitive Immunity Against SARS-CoV-2?

Abstract

Introduction: While our knowledge is limited about COVID-19 immunity, recent cases of reinfection have raised concerns. Case presentation: Here, we report a case of COVID-19 reinfection after three months from recovery in a healthcare worker with negative IgM and IgG at the second infection and positive nasopharyngeal swab Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test despite being discharged with two negative RT-PCR tests at the first admission. Symptoms at first admission were fever, headache, sore throat, diarrhea, and vomiting and got changed to myalgia and anosmia. Conclusion: The strength of this case report is the long period (three months) between the infection and reinfection while other cases reported in literature were reinfected less than one month after their first infection.

1. Sohrabi C, Alsafi Z, O'Neill N, Khan M, Kerwan A, Al-Jabir A, et al. World Health Organization declares global emergency: A review of the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Int J Surg. 2020;76:71-6.
2. Coronaviridae Study Group of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. The species Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus: classifying 2019-nCoV and naming it SARS-CoV-2. Nature Microbiology. 2020;5(4):536-44.
3. Kirkcaldy RD, King BA, Brooks JT. COVID-19 and Postinfection Immunity: Limited Evidence, Many Remaining Questions. JAMA. 2020;323(22):2245-6.
4. Chen D, Xu W, Lei Z, Huang Z, Liu J, Gao Z, et al. Recurrence of positive SARS-CoV-2 RNA in COVID-19: A case report. Int J Infect Dis. 2020;93:297-9.
5. Fu W, Chen Q, Wang T. Letter to the Editor: Three cases of re‐detectable positive SARS‐CoV‐2 RNA in recovered COVID‐19 patients with antibodies. J Med Virol. 2020; [Epub ahead of print].
6. Luo A. Positive SARS-Cov-2 test in a woman with COVID-19 at 22 days after hospital discharge: A case report. J Tradit Chin Med Sci. 2020; [Epub ahead of print].
7. Bao L, Deng W, Gao H, Xiao C, Liu J, Xue J, et al. Reinfection could not occur in SARS-CoV-2 infected rhesus macaques. BioRxiv. 2020; Preprint.
8. Chandrashekar A, Liu J, Martinot AJ, McMahan K, Mercado NB, Peter L, et al. SARS-CoV-2 infection protects against rechallenge in rhesus macaques. Science. 2020;369(6505):812-7.
9. Wang M, Hu Z, Liu J, Pang P, Fu G, Qian A, et al. Positive RT-PCR Test Results in Discharged COVID-19 Patients: Reinfection or Residual? Research Square. 2020; Preprint.
10. Hatami N, Ahi S, Sadeghinikoo A, Foroughian M, Javdani F, Kalani N, et al. Worldwide ACE (I/D) polymorphism may affect COVID-19 recovery rate: an ecological meta-regression. Endocrine. 2020; [Epub ahead of print].
11. Roy S. COVID-19 Reinfection: Myth or Truth? SN Compr Clin Med. 2020; [Epub ahead of print].
Files
IssueVol 5 No 2 (2021): Spring (April) QRcode
SectionCase (report / study)
DOI 10.18502/fem.v5i2.5627
Keywords
Case Report COVID-19 Immunity Reinfection SARS-CoV-2

Rights and permissions
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
How to Cite
1.
Ahmadi SR, Anvari Ardakani S, Kalani N, Habibzadeh SR, Vafadar Moradi E, Foroughian M. COVID-19 Reinfection in a Healthcare Worker; Is There a Definitive Immunity Against SARS-CoV-2?. Front Emerg Med. 2020;5(2):e24.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Most read articles by the same author(s)