Warning as students reinfected with Covid within six months

THREE university students have been diagnosed with Covid-19 for a second time, within six months of their initial infection.

The three NUI Galway students were infected in February and were part of the major Covid outbreak that kicked off in the city early last month.

But each of the three had a previous diagnosis - one in September, one in October and one in November, confounding the view that infected people have a six-month immunity.

Now Dr Eoin MacDonncha, medical director of Student Health, NUI Galway, has warned against complacency about being free of the risk of reinfection within a certain time period.

“There definitely wasn’t any six-month immunity for them,” he said. He believes this was due to the new strain of variant that has been circulating since Christmas, which is now dominant in Ireland.

Dr MacDonncha has raised the issue in an NUI Galway video message to students, in which HSE West director of public health Dr Breda Smyth is also urging vigilance.

The recent Covid outbreak in Galway started with four cases in early February, when the new semester opened.

Initially it involved young adults aged between 16 and 24, but by last week it was linked to more than 440 cases, affecting 224 households.

The three reinfected students were among 190 confirmed cases dealt with by the NUI Galway medical service since the outbreak started.

The disease ran through the student community and the 190 cases that presented to the university’s doctors were overwhelmingly linked to the outbreak.

Dr MacDonncha said other infected students may have been treated elsewhere.

He compared what happened in February with another significant outbreak involving students there in October.

He said the more recent outbreak was quite different, and referenced the high levels of transmissibility associated with the new variant.

“The strike rate within student accommodation was different. Previously, it was two to three cases; in the recent outbreak it might have been four, or all of the house.

“There was definitely an increase in transmissibility within accommodation. It was quite clear that there was a difference between that and what we had seen in semester one.”

He said the 190 cases over the past six weeks compared with 196 his service had dealt with in the 16-week period from September 1 to December 18.

Dr MacDonncha also sent a reminder that even if people had immunity, they could still pass on the disease to others if they touched contaminated surfaces.

A recent assessment by the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) on the risk of Covid-19 reinfection in previously infected individuals reported that the risk was very low up to seven months following initial infection.

It was based on findings from five large cohort studies, including one involving more than 144,000 healthcare workers in the UK.

All studies were completed before December, and before the widespread identification and spread of a number of new variants of international concern.

A Hiqa spokesperson said: “The applicability of the findings to recent variants of concern is unknown.”

Dr Eoghan de Barra of the Infectious Disease Society of Ireland said the likelihood of reinfection was very, low but reinfection would happen to a percentage of people.

He said there was not enough data from the limited sequencing of different strains here to show if the UK strain could lead to earlier reinfection.

Dr de Barra referred to the UK healthcare workers study, stating: “It was not that nobody got reinfected in six months, but that very few people did.” Around 87pc were still protected around six months later.

Immunity is not absolute, he pointed out.

“The number of reinfections are small. There is not enough evidence to show someone is more likely to be reinfected with the new UK variant than with the old variant,” he said.

The worry is what impact new variants will have on infection and on vaccines, he added.

He said a key message was that if people have been infected they should continue to wear a mask, follow social distancing guidelines and wash their hands.

“We need to hold the line. It is human behaviours which drive the pandemic.

“There are people who decide that they want to take the risk for themselves. The risk is across society and not at an individual level.”

Meanwhile Further and Higher Education Minister Simon Harris has launched a Covid information campaign for third-level students, referencing the Galway outbreak.

A video, prepared in consultation with the deputy chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn and the HSE highlights the risks associated with students gathering.

Online Editors