Patient re-infected with South African COVID variant in severe condition

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One of the first confirmed cases of reinfection with the South African variant of coronavirus has been reported in France in a study published Wednesday in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

The subject of the case was a 58-year-old patient with a history of asthma who, according to the study, was found to be infected with the South African variant four months after recovery from a first episode of COVID-19.

In September last year, the patient was diagnosed with COVID after experiencing a mild fever and shortness of breath and had a positive PCR smear. He recovered within a few days and tested negative twice in December.

In January, about four months after initially testing positive, the patient entered the hospital with recurring shortness of breath and fever and tested positive again for the new coronavirus. Genome sequencing revealed that he was now infected with the South African variant. About a week after arrival at the hospital, the patient developed a severe acute respiratory distress syndrome and was intubated and ventilated.

Antibody tests found immunoglobin antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus. The patient had no evidence of any immunological disease and was still in critical condition when the study was submitted to the journal.

The study emphasized that the first infection occurred a month before the South African strain emerged, ruling out the hypothesis that the reinfection was just persistent viral shedding.

Previous studies have suggested that those recovering from the virus generally have immunity to reinfection for at least six months, but cases of reinfection have been reported even in people who have antibodies to the virus, and some cases are more severe after the reinfection . .

The study published last week highlighted that further research is “urgently needed” to assess cross-immunity between different variants of the virus and to verify the effectiveness of vaccines against new variants. Initial studies have shown that blood plasma treatments of recovered patients were less effective against the South African variant and scientists have raised concerns that the variant may be resistant to currently available vaccines, although the vaccine is still considered acceptably effective is considered even against the different variants currently in circulation.
According to Ynet, at the end of January, an Israeli who was infected with the new corona virus in August turned out to be infected again with the South African variant. In the Israeli case, however, the patient showed no significant symptoms and did not infect anyone else in his household with the second infection, despite experiencing more difficult symptoms with the first infection. Prof. Shai Efrati, director of the Sagol Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Research at Yitzhak Shamir Medical Center, who studied the Israeli case, believes that the antibodies from the first infection protected the patient from developing a serious case or infecting others with the second infection, despite not protecting against transmitting the virus.

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