In early September, there was a report of a man living in Hong Kong being reinfected with coronavirus months after recovering from primary infection. However, for better or worse, the second infection was asymptomatic. Surprisingly, less than a week later, there was another reinfection report from Nevada that, contrary to the Hong Kong case, showed severe symptoms. Both cases of reinfection were confirmed with genetic sequencing. Reinfection cases can be indicative of how the immune system is responding to infection by the specific agent. If reinfection cases have milder symptoms, it means the immune system is responding well. But if symptoms are worse, the immune system might be making things worse. Another possible explanation is antibody-dependent enhancement where the antibodies produced to fight the virus actually enhance its infection.
So far, while there are only a total of four confirmed reinfection cases, due to insufficient surveillance and mass testing, we do not know how frequently reinfection occurs among those who have recovered from their first infection. With that said, reinfections shouldn’t scare people as they don’t necessarily imply that vaccines will not work against coronavirus infection.
-Bethel
Reference
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02506-y
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