Recovered Holyoke Soldiers’ Home vet testing positive for coronavirus raises questions about reinfection

A resident at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home who recovered from COVID-19 tested positive for the virus this week — renewing concerns about the possibility of reinfection.

The veteran who had been living in a unit with other clinically recovered residents began experiencing symptoms on Monday and was transferred to a hospital for treatment, according to the state. All of the residents in the unit are now being quarantined.

The Holyoke Soldiers’ Home “has been implementing protocols for clinically recovered individuals, who may test positive even after they are clinically recovered,” a spokeswoman for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services said. “The Home is immediately taking necessary precautions and is performing full-house testing with support from the Massachusetts National Guard, and temporarily suspending all visitation.”

The state did not say when the veteran was previously tested for the virus.

Although patients such as the one at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home can appear to be reinfected, there is little well-documented data that this occurs with COVID-19, said Dr. David Hooper, chief of infection control at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Hooper said viral ribonucleic acid, or RNA, can persist in the body up to 90 days after a person has recovered from the virus — which could result in a positive test even though the patient is no longer sick or contagious.

“I think we are presuming that patients, at least for the time period we are talking about, 90 days, are highly likely to be immune,” Hooper said.

Hooper added that those with underlying conditions, such as lung disease, can experience respiratory symptoms similar to COVID-19, but unrelated, and still have a positive test due to lingering virus in the body.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says reinfection with the novel virus “has not yet been definitely confirmed” and that a positive result within 90 days of the onset of symptoms “more likely represents persistent shedding of viral RNA than reinfection.”

Boston University professor Dr. John Connor said “there have been sporadic reports of people testing positive again,” adding, “It is believed to be rare and that people are not at this point certain whether it is that they’re becoming infected again with a new strain of the virus or whether it’s the same virus that was essentially hiding out in their body and re-emerged.”

Dr. David Sidebottom, medical director of infectious disease at Lowell General Hospital, said it’s important to use the same exact testing methods on a potential “reinfection” as the first time around to get clear results.

But the jury’s still out on how long the antibodies, the measure of the body’s immunity to the novel coronavirus, last. BU infectious diseases expert Dr. Davidson Hamer said research shows antibodies “look like they will last a long period of time” in people who had serious infection but disappear sooner in mild or asymptomatic cases.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/39CXUzB