A 25-year-old youth from Sector-45, Chandigarh has tested positive for the second time after a gap of two months.
Tested positive first on July 12
The youth had first tested positive on July 12 at GMCH 32 and was shifted to Shri Dhanwantry Ayurvedic College and Hospital, Sector 46, where he stayed for a total of 10 days.
Later, he tested negative for the virus through the RT-PCR method on July 21 & 31.
The tests were carried out by the Dhanwantry hospital through a Gurugram-based private lab.
Donated plasma last month
Once the recovery period of 28 days was over, the youth also donated his plasma last month at PGI and is now worried as he didn’t expect a reinfection.
Currently, the youth is in home isolation.
What experts say
According to Dr Mini Singh, a professor at Virology Department, PGIMER-
- in order to determine whether or not it is a reinfection, a blood sample can be taken to check the formation of antibodies.
- there won’t be any antibodies if it is a recent infection and vice versa.
- to see whether the patient is shedding the virus or if it is a new infection, the two strains of the virus should be sequenced.
- there is a possibility that the patient may be shedding the virus and hence tested positive & considering the fact that he donated plasma, he must be having antibodies.
- antibodies may be formed irrespective of virus shedding.
May have falsely tested negative
According to Dr G Dewan, Director, Health and Family Welfare there is a chance that the individual may have falsely tested negative.
Besides, dead fragments of the novel coronavirus leads to false positives in recovered patients.
Virus remains in cells
According to the ICMR, virus remains in cells from where swabs are taken for testing, even if it becomes deactivated.
RT-PCR test is done to detect the presence of the virus and will always show the result as positive, irrespective of the fact whether the virus is active or not.
Source: The Tribune
Image Credits: Google Images
