A 61-year-old doctor from Delhi is the first proven case to have had three COVID-19 infections, with two of the episodes caused by Alpha and Delta variants, at a gap of 22 days.

Dr Jayanthi Shastri, head of the Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory in Kasturba Hospital, Mumbai, who is the lead author of the study tracking the Delhi-based female doctor’s COVID infections, said that the second and third infections took place after she had taken both vaccine doses and had developed antibodies.

On July 27, the case of a Mumbai doctor who had tested RT-PCR positive three times was reported by TOI, twice after being vaccinated, just like the Delhi-based doctor. However, reinfections can be confirmed through whole genome sequencing and the Mumbai doctor’s samples are still being investigated. So, the Delhi doctor becomes the first proven case.

The study done by Kasturba Hospital and CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology has been accepted for publication in Frontiers in Medicine. Dr Swapneil Parikh, study co-author, said that the term “breakthrough reinfection” has been used to mark the case. While it refers to an infection that occurs around 15 days after getting a vaccine, ‘breakthrough reinfections’ describes the Delhi doctor’s two infections, or reinfections, following full vaccination.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that the average time between reinfections is around 45 to 90 days. ICMR states it as 104 days. However, this study shows that the doctor got reinfections in 19 days, stated Dr Shastri. The Delhi doctor was first infected in August 2020 and took her vaccine doses on February 1 and March 15. She required hospitalization during her third infection, which continued for over 45 days. She is doing well now.

Source: ET Healthworld