First such documented case in country: Man from KP found re-infected with coronavirus

PESHAWAR: A patient belonging to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is stated to have become the first Covid-19 victim in the country who has been re-infected with the coronavirus in the second wave of the viral infection, according to experts of Khyber Medical University (KMU) as two more people died of coronavirus while 380 tested positive for the viral infection on Sunday.

“First time he was infected on June 6 when he tested positive from NIH (National Institute of Health). It’s the first documented case of reinfection during the second wave in Pakistan,” Dr Aamir Khan, a teacher at the Khyber Medical University, told The News. Dr Aamir Khan is in-charge of Parliament House

Dispensary Islamabad and his parent department is Federal Government Polyclinic Hospital Islamabad.

The person, who got infected twice, belongs to Mardan and is working in a Basic Health Unit (BHU of the Parliament House Islamabad.

“He is still infected with the virus and today is his 17th day.

He is planned for third PCR [polymerise chain reaction] today (Monday),” said Dr Aamir Khan. The patient was diagnosed with coronavirus at the Shifa International Hospital Islamabad and a week later he again tested positive at the National Institute of Health.

The patient, whose identity is kept secret, had tested negative at the National Institute of Health on June 18.

In October, when the second wave of the viral infection hit most parts of the country, the patient developed some health complications and he was found re-infected on October 31 when taken to the hospital.

According to Dr Aamir, his PCR was done at the Shifa International Hospital Islamabad where he tested positive, and became the first documented reinfection in the country.

He said PCR of the patients was got repeated on November 7th from National Institute of Health. and it was again found positive. The expert said the patient was stable and had no serious complications now.

A group of doctors had jointly worked on this case and proven Pakistan’s first documented reinfection from the coronavirus.

“We report the first case of SARS-CoV-2 reinfection in the second wave from Pakistan. A 41-year-old male, health care worker developed flu-like illness, tested positive on June 6, 2020 and became PCR negative on June 19, 2020 with reactive antibodies.

After four months and 13 days of negative PCR, he developed symptoms again and tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 with non—reactive antibodies,” it was mentioned in the citation shared with the media.

The researchers included Dr Zia Ul-Haq, Dr Aamer Khan, Dr Sheraz, Dr Mohammad Noor, Dr Yasar Mehmood Yousafzai and Dr Akhtar Sherin. It shocked the people who had previously tested positive and recovered and believed that they were safe now from the coronavirus.

“I had tested positive in June and recovered after three weeks.

We were told that everyone would have to suffer from the viral infection but once you recover, you are safe,” said an employee of KP health department, adding the reinfection had panicked thousands of people who suffered from the virus in the past.

Meanwhile, four people lost lives as a result of the infectious disease while 267 others tested positive on Saturday.

In KP, the coronavirus had taken 1,309 lives so far, and the second wave of the infectious disease is stated to be more severe as it has infected dozens of doctors and health workers.