Coronavirus quandary: Some patients in S Korea get virus again
Uncertainty over the reinfection or reactivation of the virus in patients could affect vaccine development.
Seoul, South Korea - As countries like the United States and Italy continue to diagnose and lose thousands of people to COVID-19 each day, South Korea's new infections appear to be thinning out.
But the country is now grappling with a new problem: at least 222 people have tested positive for the virus again after recovering, and experts are not sure why.
"We can look at this as a matter of reinfection or a matter of reactivation," said Dr Roh Kyung-ho, who works at the Department of Laboratory Medicine at the National Health Insurance Ilsan Hospital.
"It is most likely that the virus is reactivated or reinfected because of [an individual's] insufficient immune function," Roh explained. "In the case of reinfections, it's possible that a person recovers from the virus and then comes into contact with other asymptomatic carriers of the virus in the community.""It is most likely that the virus is reactivated or reinfected because of [an individual's] insufficient immune function," Roh explained. "In the case of reinfections, it's possible that a person recovers from the virus and then comes into contact with other asymptomatic carriers of the virus in the community."
Experts in South Korea do not seem to think the fault lies with their test kits, which are now being exported en masse. At least 120 countries have requested Korean COVID-19 tests as imports or humanitarian aid, while South Korea exported test kits worth $48.6m in March.
It might sound alarming, but researchers believe that a reactivation of the virus is a far better scenario than potential reinfection, which would complicate efforts to develop a vaccine.
The World Health Organization warned on April 24 that countries should be careful about issuing "immunity passports" to those recovered from COVID-19, saying there was no evidence that people cannot get the disease again.The World Health Organization warned on April 24 that countries should be careful about issuing "immunity passports" to those recovered from COVID-19, saying there was no evidence that people cannot get the disease again.
"So far, we have not seen significant changes in the coronavirus itself, so the possibility of being truly reinfected is low," Hwang said. "If a variant of the virus crops up this fall or winter, then there is a possibility of reinfections. However, usually as the number of strains of a virus increases, the infectiousness of the virus increases, but the deadliness tends to decrease."
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/coronavirus-quandary-patients-south-korea-200426235141488.html
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