Chinese researchers: The first case of "re-infection" with "Corona" was detected in the world
A 33-year-old man living in Hong Kong contracted the "Covid 19" disease caused by the emerging corona virus, for the second time this year, according to Chinese researchers.
According to the US network, "CNN", a pre-print study, which the University of Hong Kong said today, that it was accepted for publication in the journal "Clinical Infection Diseases", concluded that the case of re-infection occurred 142 days after the initial infection .
The study also indicated that in the first case, the man had symptoms, but the second infection was asymptomatic, and he did not show any noticeable symptoms.
The study showed that the patient was infected during the first episode of illness, had a cough, sore throat, fever and headache for three days, and was diagnosed with "Covid 19" on March 26.
During the second infection, the patient was returning to Hong Kong from traveling in Spain via the United Kingdom, and his positive test result came during an entry examination at Hong Kong Airport on August 15, according to the study. The man was then taken to hospital again but remained without symptoms.
The genetic analysis showed that the first infection was from a strain of the Corona virus that is most related to the strains in the United States or England, which were collected in the spring, and the second was more related to strains from Switzerland and England.
The researchers said: This case demonstrates that re-infection can occur even a few months after recovery from the first infection. In short, the second infection can occur 4.5 months after the first symptomatic infection.
And they added: "Our findings indicate that the new corona may continue as it is for other corona viruses associated with colds, even if patients acquire immunity through natural infection or through vaccination."
The researchers called this case the "first case" of re-infection with "Covid 19" in their paper, but other experts call for more research before this case is really called the first in the world.
"What I think is really important is that we put this in context," said Maria Van Kerkhove, who leads the WHO Corona pandemic technical response and head of the Emerging and Zoonotic Diseases Unit, during a media conference in Geneva on Monday.
She added, "More than 24 million infections have been recorded so far. And we have to look at something like this at a population level. So it is very important that we document everything, in countries that can do it, if it can be sequenced that would be very helpful." ".
And she continued: "But we need not to jump to any conclusions. Even if this is the first documented case of reinfection, it is of course possible because through our experience with other human coronaviruses, we know that people acquire antibodies for some time but that may diminish." .