The subject of the case was a 58-year-old patient with a history of asthma who was found to have been infected with the South African variant four months after recovering from a first episode of COVID-19, according to the study.
In September of last year, the patient was diagnosed with COVID after experiencing mild fever and shortness of breath and receiving a positive PCR swab test. He recovered within a few days and tested negative twice in December.
In January, about four months after initially testing positive, the patient entered the hospital with recurrent shortness of breath and fever and tested positive for the novel coronavirus again. Genome sequencing found that he was now infected with the South African variant. About a week after arriving at the hospital, the patient developed severe acute respiratory distress syndrome and was intubated and put on a ventilator.
Antibody testing found immunoglobin antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus. The patient had no evidence of any immunological disorder and was still in critical condition when the study was submitted to the journal.
The study stressed that the first infection happened a month before the South African strain emerged, ruling out the hypothesis that the reinfection was just persistent viral shedding.
Prior studies have suggested that those who recover from the virus generally have immunity against reinfection for at least six months, however there have been reports of cases of reinfections even in people who have antibodies against the virus, with some cases being more severe after the reinfection.
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