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Nosotros yet don't know why some people can test positive for COVID-19 twice. Getty Images
  • The World Health Organization (WHO) says we don't accept plenty evidence to understand if and why some people may experience reactivation after recovery.
  • We demand more than information to decide if and why the virus may be having a flare-up in some infected people.
  • Only we may discover it'south all tied back to the functionality of each person's immune system.

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South Korea recently reported that a meaning number of people with COVID-nineteen accept tested positive, then tested negative, only to examination positive and experience symptoms, like fever, cough, sore throat, and fatigue, again.

Wellness officials in Republic of korea say it'southward unlikely these patients got reinfected with COVID-19 a second fourth dimension since they're testing positive for a 2nd time so shortly, only rather that some people with COVID-19 may be experiencing a viral reactivation.

Health experts in the United States don't think a reactivation of COVID-19 is likely since we've never observed viral reactivation in other coronaviruses.

It could very well exist that the virus never left their system. It lingered, and they were never fully cured of the disease, and that's what the subsequent COVID-nineteen tests are catching.

The Globe Health Organization (WHO) says we don't have enough testify to empathize if and why some people may experience reactivation after recovery.

It'll take time, and a lot of enquiry, earlier we have a clear film of the virus's behavior.

"The truth is that we don't exactly sympathize the dynamics of how people who test negative subsequently initial infection end upward testing positive once again. We need more studies to analyze this observed phenomenon," says Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency doctor at Lenox Hill Infirmary in New York City.

Dr. Benjamin Neuman, a virologist and the head of the biology department at Texas A&M University-Texarkana, believes it's not so much a reactivation of the virus as information technology is a resurgence.

Neuman thinks people are probably "being discharged with some virus however in them, and so the disease returns."

Initial bear witness from Hong Kong and Cathay shows that the virus continues to be detectable in the lower lung and intestines anywhere from ii weeks to a calendar month, according to Neuman.

1 written report from Hong Kong looked at information from 59 people with COVID-nineteen, as well as pooled information from more than 60 studies, and found "the presence of viral RNA fragments or particles in stool upwards to 33 days after initial infection with SARS-CoV-2, with no evidence of virus being detected in respiratory tract samples," Glatter said.

This suggests traces or fragments of the virus are still lingering in other parts of the body, fifty-fifty if it'south not detectable through a nasal or throat swab.

We exercise see viral reactivation in other viruses, such equally herpes and HIV. These viruses enter a dormancy menstruum in which they become integrated into the host's Deoxyribonucleic acid.

Afterward a flow of time, the virus can become reactivated, potentially through stress similar nosotros run into with chicken pox or shingles.

Just coronaviruses like those that crusade SARS, COVID-19, and MERS don't take a fallow phase, and they don't integrate into our Dna, making a reactivation unlikely.

"Human coronaviruses have not yet been shown to have annihilation like an inactive phase, so the thought of reactivation is a bit of a stretch," Neuman said.

We need more information to decide if and why the virus may be having another burst in some infected people, only we may observe it's all tied back to the functionality of each person's allowed organization.

"Information technology takes the coordination of the entire immune arrangement to articulate a viral infection, and it is an agile struggle the entire time," Neuman said.

One time the allowed system is fighting the virus, there tin be setbacks where the virus can temporarily gain the upper manus.

Where one person'south immune system can articulate a virus quickly, it may take another person's allowed system over 2 weeks to go rid of it.

He suspects older people with COVID-19 who accept weakened allowed systems may be more likely to feel a resurgence — but, again, we demand more than research before any conclusions can be made.

According to Neuman, physicians in China aren't releasing people with COVID-xix from the hospital until their fecal swabs produce negative results — something we're not yet doing in the The states.

Because the virus seems to linger longer in the intestines, testing fecal matter gives doctors a better idea if the virus has officially been cleared from people's bodies.

"Until we start doing that here, we won't be able to tell the departure between reinfection, resurgence, or possibly reactivation of SARS-CoV-2," Neuman said.

Antibody tests, which tracks who is partially or fully allowed after recovering from COVID-xix, can also help us command the community spread of the infection and potentially allow certain areas to ease social distancing restrictions.

But until we have those tests, Glatter says "we won't have a expert handle on the situation."

South korea recently reported that a significant number of COVID-19 patients have tested positive, and then tested negative simply to test positive and feel symptoms, similar fever, cough, sore throat, and fatigue, once more.

South Korean health officials doubtable patients are experiencing a viral reactivation, but health experts in the The states don't think a reactivation of COVID-nineteen is likely, since we've never observed viral reactivation in other coronaviruses.