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How strong is the evidence that it is possible to get SARS‐CoV‐2 twice? A systematic review
Author(s) -
Farrukh Larabe,
Mumtaz Aqsa,
Sana Muhammad K.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
reviews in medical virology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.06
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1099-1654
pISSN - 1052-9276
DOI - 10.1002/rmv.2203
Subject(s) - covid-19 , medicine , virology , real world evidence , medline , sars virus , intensive care medicine , biology , disease , outbreak , infectious disease (medical specialty) , biochemistry
Summary With a large number of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid‐19) patients being discharged from hospital with negative test results for SARS‐CoV‐2, it has been reported that several recovered cases tested positive after discharge (re‐positive, RP). This finding has raised several important questions for this novel coronavirus and Covid‐19 disease. In this review, we have discussed several important questions, including: (1) Can the virus re‐infect recovered individuals? (2) What are the possible causes of the re‐positive reverse transcriptase‐polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) test in recovered patients? (3) What are the implications of these re‐positive cases concerning the spread of the virus? Understanding how recovery from Covid‐19 confers immunity to decrease the risk of re‐infection is needed to inform current efforts to safely scale back population‐based interventions, such as physical distancing. We have also described what is currently known about the immune response to Covid‐19, highlighted key gaps in knowledge, and identified opportunities for future research. Overall, the quality of the evidence is poor and we describe the features that should be described for future cases.