A 25-year-old was infected twice with the coronavirus earlier this year, scientists in Nevada have confirmed. It is the first confirmed case of so-called reinfection with the virus in the U.S. and the fifth confirmed reinfection case worldwide.
The cases underscore the importance of social distancing and wearing masks even if you were previously infected with the virus, and they raise questions about how the human immune system reacts to the virus.
The two infections in the Nevada patient occurred about six weeks apart, according to a case study published Monday in the medical journal The Lancet. The patient originally tested positive for the virus in April and had symptoms including a cough and nausea. He recovered and tested negative for the virus in May.
But at the end of May, he went to an urgent care center with symptoms including fever, cough and dizziness. In early June, he tested positive again and ended up in the hospital.
“The second infection was symptomatically more severe than the first,” the authors of the study write. The patient survived his second bout with COVID-19.
This is the second confirmed case of coronavirus reinfection in which the patient was sicker the second time. A patient in Ecuador also suffered a more serious case of COVID-19 the second time they were infected with the virus.
Scientists are unsure why this might be. In theory, the body’s immune system should make antibodies after the first infection that help it combat the virus more effectively if the person is exposed to the same virus again.
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The first case of coronavirus reinfection has been confirmed in the U.S. in a 25-year-old Nevada man whose second case was more severe.
It's the fifth confirmed reinfection case worldwide.https://t.co/YaCJjW4Ard
— NPR (@NPR) October 12, 2020
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