Brazil may have its first confirmed case of reinfection by the new coronavirus — a study of the case will be submitted to the scientific journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases. At the same time, Brazilian researchers are investigating at least 95 suspicions of reinfection with the new coronavirus in four states.
Discarding exams, however, makes the job difficult. Without the samples, scientists cannot sequence the genomes of viruses that may have infected patients to confirm that they are two separate infections, which is considered essential by international scientific journals such as Lancet.
According to doctor Roque de Almeida, doctor of immunology and head of the molecular biology, the patient is a 40-year-old nursing technician from Aracaju laboratory at Hospital Universitário de Sergipe.
She underwent two RT-PCR tests (considering the gold standard for verifying acute coronavirus infection) with a positive result for Sars-CoV-2 within 54 days, between May and July. She had a dry cough and shortness of breath, but she did not need to be hospitalized.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon