Symptomatic Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Reinfection of a Healthcare Worker in a Belgian Nosocomial Outbreak Despite Primary Neutralizing Antibody Response.
Clin Infect Dis
; 73(9): e2985-e2991, 2021 11 02.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1501042
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
It is currently unclear whether severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) reinfection will remain a rare event, only occurring in individuals who fail to mount an effective immune response, or whether it will occur more frequently when humoral immunity wanes following primary infection.METHODS:
A case of reinfection was observed in a Belgian nosocomial outbreak involving 3 patients and 2 healthcare workers. To distinguish reinfection from persistent infection and detect potential transmission clusters, whole genome sequencing was performed on nasopharyngeal swabs of all individuals including the reinfection case's first episode. Immunoglobulin A, immunoglobulin M, and immunoglobulin G (IgG) and neutralizing antibody responses were quantified in serum of all individuals, and viral infectiousness was measured in the swabs of the reinfection case.RESULTS:
Reinfection was confirmed in a young, immunocompetent healthcare worker as viral genomes derived from the first and second episode belonged to different SARS-CoV-2 clades. The symptomatic reinfection occurred after an interval of 185 days, despite the development of an effective humoral immune response following symptomatic primary infection. The second episode, however, was milder and characterized by a fast rise in serum IgG and neutralizing antibodies. Although contact tracing and viral culture remained inconclusive, the healthcare worker formed a transmission cluster with 3 patients and showed evidence of virus replication but not of neutralizing antibodies in her nasopharyngeal swabs.CONCLUSIONS:
If this case is representative of most patients with coronavirus disease 2019, long-lived protective immunity against SARS-CoV-2 after primary infection might not be likely.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Cross Infection
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Randomized controlled trials
Topics:
Long Covid
Limits:
Female
/
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
Europa
Language:
English
Journal:
Clin Infect Dis
Journal subject:
Communicable Diseases
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Cid
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