A Case of COVID-19 Re-Infection in a Liver Transplant Patient.
Cureus
; 13(5): e14916, 2021 May 09.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1239162
ABSTRACT
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an ongoing worldwide pandemic infection. The exact incidence of disease re-infection or recurrence remains unknown. One particular at-risk population includes individuals with solid organ transplantation on immunosuppression. We present a case of COVID-19 re-infection in a chronically immunocompromised liver transplant patient. A 53-year-old female presented to the Emergency Department (ED) with nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and myalgias. She was found to test positive for COVID-19. Her relevant medical history included liver transplantation on chronic immunosuppression. More recently, she had tested positive for COVID-19 approximately three months prior to this and was hospitalized at that time for encephalopathy and treated with remdesivir and convalescent plasma. She had subsequently recovered with negative COVID-19 testing in the interim. On the ED presentation with presumed re-infection, her disease was deemed to be mild with lack of severe symptoms or pulmonary involvement, and she was discharged with outpatient follow-up for monoclonal antibody infusion therapy. We describe a scenario of presumed COVID-19 re-infection in a liver transplant patient. To our knowledge, this is a rare event and has been reported internationally in only a handful of individuals. We surmise that immunosuppression could offer some protection from the inflammatory cascade of the initial disease process in COVID-19 given the relatively mild disease observed in our patient. On the other hand, a less robust immune response may decrease humoral immunity and leave patients at greater risk of re-infection. Further investigation is necessary to delineate COVID-19 disease re-infection versus relapse, especially in the setting of an immunocompromised state.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Type of study:
Case report
/
Cohort study
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Language:
English
Journal:
Cureus
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Cureus.14916
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