Medics are reporting what they believe to be the first case of Covid-19 re-infection in Ireland.
In a paper published in the new edition of the Irish Medical Journal (IMJ), medics report that a 40-year-old female healthcare worker contracted Covid-19 seven months after first falling ill with the disease last year.
The paper counts consultant virologist and Laboratory Director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory at UCD, Dr Cillian de Gascun, as one of its co-authors.
It states “to our knowledge, this is the first report of re-infection from Ireland”.
The paper, titled ‘Genomic Evidence of SARS-CoV-2 Reinfection in Ireland’, recounts how the woman initially presented with fever, headache, sore throat, shortness of breath and dysgeusia in April 2020.
She was diagnosed with Covid-19.
The paper's authors state: “While never hospitalised, she was unfit for work for four weeks due to significant headaches and persistent fatigue lasting four months.”
They state that one of two household contacts also developed Covid-19.
Seven months later in November 2020, the woman presented with cough, sore throat, headache, fatigue and myalgia.
She was again diagnosed with Covid-19 and this was done by whole genome sequencing.
However, symptoms were milder and a faster recovery took place while the woman remained off work for the two-week period of self-isolation.
The medics state that the woman reports a post-viral wheeze controlled with low dose inhaler.
They said “the race to protect healthcare workers, prevent further deaths and to return to normal social and economic activity by establishing herd immunity through vaccination has begun worldwide”.
They added that vaccines have shown efficacy rates of 70% to 95% in clinical trials, however, the effectiveness in populations overall and the durability of immunity is yet to be evaluated.
