FIGHTING COVID-19

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Doctors Say South Korea And China Have Reported Some Patients Testing Positive After Being Cured Of Coronavirus

TIMES NEWS NETWORK
`8.04.2020

There was cheer as 103 patients walked out of the isolation wards on Friday. Doctors and nurses clapped and offered them baskets of fruit. But they were all given a stern warning -- stay in quarantine at home for at least a fortnight.

Hospitals have so far discharged 283 patients after two consecutive tests show negative in a span of 24 hours. These tests are done 14 days after testing positive. “They should be asymptomatic and their chest x-rays clear at the time of discharge,” said Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital dean Dr R Jayanthi. All of them have been asked to remain i n home quarantine, preferably in a separate room with a bath. “If not, the washroom has to be disinfected. They should avoid sharing common items such as towels, toiletries and utensils. They should maintain a 3-metre distance from other family members,” she said.

There haven’t been cases of relapse or re-infection in patients discharged from hospitals across India, but doctors and public health experts point out that South Korea and China have reported that some of their patients have tested positive after being cured. Studies point to multiple possibilities -- reinfection, relapse or varying test results that misguided doctors.

As of now, doctors say they don’t have answers as studies are still underway. The simplest reason that doctors and virologists point to is case of false negatives. “Sometimes, healthcare workers may not have collected enough material for nasal or throat swab. The machine may spin a false negative at the time of discharge. There is up to 30% error in such a test. This is exactly why protocols demand two consecutive negatives,” said a senior virologist at the directorate of public health. Yet, in some discharges there are chances of double false negatives.

In some cases, tests may be sensitive enough to pick inactive parts of the virus in people who have been cured, said infectious diseases expert Dr Subramanian Swaminathan. This can happen when they retest after discharge. “When we do a PCR test, we look for the genet- ic material of the virus, in this case the RNA. We do not look for the active virus. So even after the body has recovered, the virus can leave behind debris. There is no proof this debris can infect people, but they do show up as positive cases in tests,” he said.

Scientists also suspect a third possibility of the virus going dormant and flaring up when the immunity levels in the body go down. There is also emerging evidence to show the virus may be destroying T-cells, like in the case of HIV, that makes it difficult to detect resurging levels of the virus because these immune cells don’t trigger the production of antibodies. “These are all still emerging evidence. We keep it simple for our patients. Stay at home, eat healthy and ensure your sugar levels and blood pressure are under control,” said DPH Kolandaisamy.