Covid-19: Discharged after testing negative, Bengaluru woman infected again

BENGALURU: A 27-year-old woman from Bengaluru had tested positive for Covid-19 on July 6 and was admitted to Fortis Hospital, Bannerghatta Road the next day. She was discharged on July 25, a day after she tested negative for SARS-CoV2.
Exactly a month later, on August 25, the woman was back in hospital with symptoms of cough, fever and sore throat. She consulted doctors who again collected swabs samples for testing. She tested positive again. She is suspected to be a case of reinfection of SARSCoV2 in the city.
The woman had returned to work after being discharged. However, when she developed the same symptoms a month later, doctors immediately conducted a rapid antigen test.
“When the rapid test showed she was positive, we conducted an RT-PCR test which also showed she was infected. We also did an antibody test, only to find out there were no antibodies present,” said Dr Pratik Patil, consultant, infectious diseases, Fortis Hospital.
Doctors say the positive test can mean one of two things. “Either her body did not develop antibodies at all, or the antibodies didn’t last for more than a month,” said Dr Pratik.
To declare a case of reinfection, it has to be proved that the genetic sequence of the virus is different in both infections. However, in this case, the hospital does not have the swab sample taken in July when the woman was first infected. That swab sample was destroyed scientifically soon after she was tested as it was a biohazard. “We have not been able to do genetic culture tests in her case,” Dr Pratik said.
No channel
The first documented case of a Covid-19 reinfection across the globe is that of a 33-year-old man from Hong Kong, who first tested positive in March. Then in July, after a gap of four and a half months, he tested positive again. Scientists from University of Hong Kong conducted genetic sequencing of the virus from his two infections and declared that they did not match, indicating reinfection.
When the Bengaluru woman tested positive for the second time, the hospital said it informed health and family welfare department officials. “Our concern was to bring it to the notice of the health department. But we were told that there were no such official channels to report cases of reinfection,” Dr Pratik said.
However, Dr Arundhati Chandrashekar, mission director, National Health Mission, whose team prepares the state’s Covid-19 bulletins daily, said she was unaware of the case. “We will check,” she said.
The woman has recovered now and is all set to be discharged. No pre-discharge test is being done now, as per the current testing protocol which does not mandate a test if there are no symptoms.