In what is likely the first case of COVID-19 reinfection in Bengaluru city, a private hospital stated that a patient who was discharged in the month of July after recovering from the disease, has tested positive for the coronavirus once again.
In a press statement, Fortis Hospital, Bannerghatta Road said that a 27-year-old woman is found to be the first confirmed case of COVID-19 reinfection. In a press statement, Dr Pratik Patil, Consultant, Infectious Diseases, Fortis Hospital, Bannerghatta Road, said, “In the first week of July, the patient was symptomatic (fever, cough and sore throat) and was tested positive. She was admitted at the hospital and recovered well. A repeat test was conducted on her, which turned out to be negative, post which she was discharged on July 24. However, nearly after 1 month, in the last week of August, she developed mild symptoms again and has been tested positive again. Both the times she did not have severe disease. This is possibly the first reported case of COVID-19 reinfection in Bangalore.”
Dr Patil explained that Immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody lingers in the received patient’s blood after two-three weeks of infection. However, the patient later tested negative for IgG antibodies, suggesting she did not have immunity following the infection. “Other possibility is that the IgG antibodies disappeared in nearly one month leaving her susceptible for reinfection,” he said.
“Reinfection cases mean that the antibodies may not be produced by every individual or if they do develop, they may not last long enough, and therefore, allowing the virus to enter the body and cause the disease again,” he added.
Speaking to TNM, Dr Srinivas, District Health Officer, Bengaluru Urban denied knowledge about the development and said he will look into the issue. He added so far no such case of reinfection has been reported in the city.
Earlier in May, a case of COVID-19 reinfection was reported from Belagavi where a 50-year-old man was thought to have gotten infected. While he tested negative successively for the second time on May 1, he had tested positive for the virus again on May 4 with his symptoms resurfacing on May 5.
In August, a 33-year-old man from Europe who returned to Hong Kong was reportedly the first case of COVID-19 reinfection in the world. A genome sequence study by a group of researchers in University of Hong Kong found that he was infected with two different strains of the virus.