Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
'Caution Light': Nevada Man Is First Reported In US To Get Virus Twice
An otherwise healthy 25-year-old Nevada man is the first American confirmed to have caught COVID-19 twice, with the second infection worse than the first. He has recovered, but his case raises questions about how long people are protected after being infected with the coronavirus that causes the disease, and potentially how protective a vaccine might be. "It's a yellow caution light," said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at the Vanderbilt University School of聽Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee, who was not involved in the research. (Weintraub, 10/12)
According to the case study, his second infection was more severe than the first, with symptoms including fever, cough and dizziness. The researchers sequenced the RNA from both virus samples and found they were two different strains, making it a true reinfection. (Seipel, 10/12)
It is the first confirmed case of so-called reinfection with the virus in the U.S. and the fifth confirmed reinfection case worldwide. ... The two infections in the Nevada patient occurred about six weeks apart, according to a case study published Monday in the medical journal The Lancet. The patient originally tested positive for the virus in April and had symptoms including a cough and nausea. He recovered and tested negative for the virus in May.(Hersher, 10/12 )
