Washoe man 1st confirmed COVID-19 reinfection case in N. America
A Washoe County man is the first confirmed case of a North American resident being infected twice by COVID-19, according to a highly respected British medical journal.
The Lancet published the case study on the unidentified man Monday.
“We present, to our knowledge, the first North American case of reinfection with SARS-CoV-2,” the report stated. “A 25-year-old man, who was a resident of Washoe County in the U.S. state of Nevada, had laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection in April, 2020, followed by secondary infection within a period of around 6 weeks, in June, 2020. The second infection was symptomatically more severe than the first. Genomic analysis showed the two viral agents were genetically distinct. The patient’s immune reaction in vitro was not assessed and, thus, conclusions cannot be made about the duration or degree of immunity.
“The patient presented to a community testing event held by the Washoe County Health District on April 18, 2020. He had symptoms consistent with viral infection (sore throat, cough, headache, nausea, and diarrhea), which had started on March 25, 2020. The patient had no history of clinically significant underlying conditions, and no indications of compromised immunity were identified. During isolation, the patient’s symptoms resolved (reported on April 27, 2020) and he continued to feel well until May 28, 2020. On May 31, 2020, the patient sought care at an urgent care centre with self-reported fever, headache, dizziness, cough, nausea, and diarrhea, at which time chest radiography was done and he was discharged home. 5 days later (on June 5, 2020), the patient presented to a primary care doctor and was found to be hypoxic with shortness of breath. He was instructed to go to the emergency department after provision of oxygen.”
The research is focused on all aspects of the disease, but especially on a person’s immunity response after an infection.
The Nevada State Public Health Laboratory in Reno previously reported the man was the nation’s first COVID-19 patient to have been reinfected by the coronavirus.
The man has not given any interviews about his illness.
Contact Marvin Clemons at mclemons@reviewjournal.com. Follow @Marv_in_Vegas on Twitter.