Bengaluru private hospital reports first case of Covid-19 relapse in city

A 27-year-old woman has been found to be the first possible reported case of Covid-19 reinfection in Bengaluru, a private hospital said in a statement on Saturday.

The woman who has no history of co-morbidities, according to the hospital, tested Covid-19 positive in July after she developed mild symptoms of fever and cough. She had recovered and was discharged after testing negative for Covid-19.

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However, after one month, she developed mild symptoms and tested positive again.

Dr Pratik Patil, Consultant, Infectious Diseases, Fortis Hospital, Bannerghatta Road, said in a statement, “In the first week of July, the patient was symptomatic (fever, cough and sore throat) and tested positive. She was admitted at the hospital and later recovered. A repeat test was conducted, which turned out to be negative, post which she was discharged on July 24."

However, nearly after one month, in the last week of August, she developed mild symptoms again and tested positive for Covid-19.

"This is possibly the first reported case of Covid reinfection in Bengaluru," the doctor added, in his statement.

He further explained that usually, the patients develop Immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies after two to three weeks of infection, however, in this case, the patient tested negative for IgG antibodies, which means she did not develop immunity after infection.

"Another possibility is that the IgG antibodies disappeared in nearly one month leaving her susceptible for reinfection. Reinfection cases mean that the antibodies may not be produced by every individual or if they do develop, they may not last long enough, and therefore, allowing the virus to enter the body and cause the disease again," Dr Patil said, in his statement.

Dr Vishal Rao, Associate Dean, HCG Centre of Academic Research, said, "Earlier studies from China suggest that reinfection rate is known to be around 17% of the population. A recent patient of ours who developed thyroid cancer noticed swelling after his infection and then was PCR negative. When we planned to operate, and retested, he turned out to be positive, again. Reinfections are well known."

Commenting on the development, Epidemiologist and member of the state technical advisory committee Dr Giridhar Babu, said, "It has taken 3.89 lakh Covid-19 cases in the state to report one case of reinfection. This shows how rare this occurrence is."

"If anything, these rare occurrences globally have shown that reinfections tend to be less severe clinically compared to the first time. Also, it is very difficult to establish reinfection of SARS-CoV-2 as we need to show culture positive live virus in a BSL-3 laboratory," he added.

Otherwise, this might be confused with a prolonged post viral syndrome, which will have chronic post-viral symptoms of Covid-19, he explained. In the absence of a clear diagnosis, this can be confused for reinfection with other viruses.

"We need detailed studies to explore the incidence of reinfections in the country. I do not see much implications due to reinfections since it is very rare occurence," Babu said.