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A man in Hong Kong is the first with a confirmed reinfection with the new coronavirus , a raw study suggests .
This may be the first major clue to a still - unreciprocated question about the COVID-19pandemic : How long does immunity to SARS - CoV-2 last ? There have been some former reports of potential reinfection cases around the globe , but none have been confirmed with definitive examination , according to The New York Times . the great unwashed who recover from COVID-19 can shed computer virus fragments for workweek , which can turn up as a electropositive COVID-19 trial run result , even when they are n’t in reality pour forth resilient virus , according to The Times .
But today ( Aug. 24 ) , a group of researcher reported on a case of a patient who was infect with two genetically different melodic line of the coronavirus , calendar month apart , according to a press waiver from the University of Hong Kong ’s Department of Medicine . The scientist found that the coronavirus that infect the patient , a 33 - year - old - human in Hong Kong , the second time around had 24 different nucleotides , or building blocks , in its cistron sequence than the computer virus that infected him the first fourth dimension .
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That likely mean that the person did n’t just continue to cast off the same computer virus calendar month after being infected , concord to the subject field that was just accepted , but not yet published , in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases .
But this case should n’t activate widespread fear .
" This is no cause for alarm - this is a text example of how exemption should work , " Akiko Iwasaki , a professor of immunobiology and molecular , cellular and developmental biology at the Yale School of Medicine , wrote on Twitter .
The patient , who was previously salubrious , was first diagnosed with COVID-19 on March 26 . During his first infection he had mild symptoms including a coughing , painful pharynx , head ache and fever for several days . Though his symptoms lessen , he was hospitalise on March 29 and was discharged on April 14 after testing electronegative for the virus twice .
Four and one-half months by and by , the patient role was returning to Hong Kong from Spain via the United Kingdom and quiz positive for the virus in a screening at the Hong Kong airport on Aug. 15 , harmonise to the report . He was again hospitalized but did n’t have any symptoms . " While immunity was not enough to kibosh reinfection , it protected the person from disease , " Iwasaki write .
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Antibody tests depict that the patient did not have any perceptible antibody to the coronavirus when he was reinfected but developed detectable antibody after reinfection .
" This is encouraging , " Iwasaki wrote . " While this is a respectable example of how main infection can preclude disease from subsequent infection , more studies are involve to realize the range of upshot from reinfection . "
This case of re - infection has " several important implications , " the author write in the study . " It is unlikely that herd immunity can wipe out SARS - CoV-2 , although it is potential that subsequent transmission may be milder than the first contagion as for this affected role . "
COVID-19 will likely continue to circulate in the human population , standardised to the coronaviruses that cause usual colds , they wrote .
Other implications are that vaccines may not be capable to provide womb-to-tomb protection against COVID-19 and that vaccines subject field should let in those who have regain from COVID-19 , the authors write .
“ What I think is really authoritative is that we put this into context of use , ” Maria Van Kerkhove , the World Health Organization ’s technological principal for coronavirus response and nous of the emerging disease and zoonoses whole , said during a intelligence briefing in Geneva on Monday ( Aug. 24),according to CNN . There ’s been more than 24 million causa of COVID-19 reported worldwide , and so " we need to look at something like this on a universe level . "
Van Kerkhove said she was still go over the case , according to STAT News . " What we are get wind about infection is that mass do develop an immune response , and what is not wholly clear yet is how potent that immune response is and for how long that resistant reply go . "
primitively publish on Live Science .
