For the first time a Dutch person died who was infected with the corona virus for the second time. It concerns an 89-year-old woman who suffered from a rare form of cancer and was undergoing treatment that prevents the immune system from working fully.
This is evident from one publication which included professor of virology Marion Koopmans and researcher Bas Oude Munnink from Erasmus MC.
The woman reported to hospital earlier this year, during the first wave of infections. She already had Waldenstrom’s disease, a rare type of bone marrow cancer. For this she underwent a treatment that also ensures that there are fewer cells that can produce antibodies.
She had a fever and a persistent cough when she was first infected and was hospitalized for five days. The symptoms disappeared, although she was more tired than usual.
The woman became infected again during chemotherapy
Two months later, when the woman had just started another chemotherapy, she developed a fever and breathing problems again. She turned out to be infected with the virus again. Tests showed that she indeed had no antibodies against the virus.
Her situation deteriorated rapidly. The woman died two weeks later.
Research has shown that the virus had a different genetic makeup in the two cases. This means that the virus did not remain in her body, but that she really got infected with the corona virus again.
Few cases of recontamination are known
There are only 23 confirmed cases of a second corona infection worldwide so far, the tracker said BNO News. But in all other cases, the patient has recovered from the second infection so far.
Research into these types of reinfections is difficult, because the researchers need to be able to compare good samples of both infections.
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