Coronavirus India: First COVID-19 reinfection case in Bengaluru; 27-year-old tests positive again within a month

Representative Image

A private hospital has reported that a 27-year-old woman from Bengaluru tested positive again nearly a month after she was treated and discharged from the hospital. Doctors at Fortis Hospital, claim that this could be the first reported case of reinfection in the city.

“On July 6, the patient was symptomatic. She reported with fever, cough, and sore throat and had tested positive. She was admitted at the hospital and recovered well. A repeat test was conducted on her, which turned out to be negative, after which she was discharged on July 24,” Pratik Patil, consultant, Infectious Diseases, at the hospital, told The Hindu on September 5.

“However, in the last week of August, she developed mild symptoms again and tested positive again. Both the times she did not have severe disease. This is possibly the first reported case of COVID-19 reinfection in Bengaluru. She has recovered well this time too and is being discharged. We have not done a repeat COVID-19 test before discharge this time as per the new discharge policy,” he said.

In August, University of Hong Kong scientists had claimed to have the first evidence of someone being reinfected with the virus that causes COVID-19 after genetic tests showed that a 33-year-old man returning from a trip to Spain in mid-August had a different strain of the coronavirus than the one he was found infected with in March.

The same month, at a press briefing, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)Director-General Balram Bhargava said the Hong Kong case is a stray example and the reinfection can depend upon various factors.

"We have read with interest the reports of reinfection in one case in Hong Kong. We are learning more and more about the disease as we go ahead. It can depend on several factors, one can be related to the patient itself, how is his immunity, how was his immune status, was it compromised. It can also depend upon the virus, whether the virus has mutated or turned virulent," he said, reported news agency PTI.

However, only one case of re-infection has been reported and it is very rare for viral infections, he said.

Citing the example of measles, he said once it affects, it gives lifelong immunity.

But rarely does one can get the measles a second time.

"Similarly, this is a stray example, but for this disease, we are trying to find out. We need to find out how long the immunity lasts. We need to closely follow it up, but at the same time we don't need to be alarmed immensely about it," Bhargava said.

Meanwhile, India's COVID-19 tally of cases went past 41 lakh with a record 90,632 people being infected in a day, while 31,80,865 people have recuperated so far pushing the national recovery rate to 77.32 percent on September 6, according to the Union Health Ministry data.

With inputs from PTI