1. Asymptomatic reinfection in two healthcare workers from India with genetically distinct SARS-CoV-2
- Author
-
Gupta, Vivek, Bhoyar, Rahul C, Jain, Abhinav, Srivastava, Saurabh, Upadhayay, Rashmi, Imran, Mohamed, Jolly, Bani, Divakar, Mohit Kumar, Sharma, Disha, Sehgal, Paras, Ranjan, Gyan, Gupta, Rakesh, Scaria, Vinod, and Sivasubbu, Sridhar
- Subjects
AcademicSubjects/MED00290 ,viruses ,Correspondence ,skin and connective tissue diseases - Abstract
Reinfection of SARS-CoV-2 is an apparently rare entity and only a few cases have been reported from across the world with the genetic characterization of the virus, differentiating reinfection from persistent virus shedding. These cases, therefore, provide unique insights into the long term protective immunity to SARS-CoV-2. The earlier reports suggest that patients were symptomatic in either one or both the episodes of infection. Here we report a unique case of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 reinfection in two healthcare workers from India identified in routine surveillance. Genome sequencing of the virus suggests that genetically distinct SARS-CoV-2 caused the infections. Our analysis demonstrates that asymptomatic reinfection could potentially be an under-reported entity with implications in long term surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 infections. This report also highlights the need for genomic surveillance of healthcare workers who are potentially not only at higher risk for primary infections but also for reinfections.
- Published
- 2020