South Korea, A Growing Number Of COVID-19 Patients Test Positive After Recovery

[IceWizard]

In South Korea, A Growing Number 
Of COVID-19 Patients Test Positive 
After Recovery

April 17, 202011:23 AM ET



Antibody test cartridges used in diagnosing the coronavirus move along on a 
production line at Boditech Med in Chuncheon, South Korea. By Friday, 
authorities had identified 163 patients who tested positive again 
after a full recovery.

Lee Jin-man/AP


A growing number of recovered COVID-19 patients are 
relapsing in South Korea, raising new questions and concerns 
among scientists and health authorities after the country 
successfully flattened the curve.

By Friday, Korean health authorities had identified 163 patients 
who tested positive again after a full recovery. The number 
more than doubled in about a week, up from 74 cases on April 9. 
Those patients — just over 2% of the country's 7,829 
recovered patients — are now back in isolation.

According to Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
data on Friday, the age and regional distribution of relapse 
cases are largely in line with that of the total infections.

To find out reasons for relapse, South Korean health authorities 
are running a range of tests and vetting various scenarios.
The World Health Organization said last week that it is 
investigating the issue. While a fuller analysis will take at 
least a few weeks, early findings suggest there can be more 
than one cause.

Top KCDC officials said in recent briefings that the most 
likely possibility is reactivation of remaining viruses in 
patients' systems. If a patient had not developed sufficient 
immunity against the virus or if a patient's immune system 
weakens after recovery, the previously undetectable level of 
virus concentration could rebound. Or the novel coronavirus 
may be capable of staying dormant before reactivating.

Another possibility is that tests are picking up dead virus 
particles that are no longer infectious or transmissible. KCDC 
director-general Jeong Eun-kyeong said Friday that viruses 
collected from six relapse cases could not be cultivated in 
isolation, signifying that they are either dead or 
too small in number.

But some relapsed patients may have living viruses that make 
them sick. As of Friday, at least 61 developed symptoms, albeit mild.

A live virus is probably also transmissible, according to Jeong, 
but no secondary transmission by relapsed cases has been reported.

Reinfection through another virus carrier is a less probable 
scenario, considering that patients are retesting positive not 
long after they are released from treatment. Jeong said on Friday 
that relapse cases are detected an average of 13.5 days after recovery. 
The longest reported interval, however, is 35 days.

KCDC has also mentioned errors in testing or sample collecting 
as potential causes.


Short of definitive answers, authorities are for now advising recovered patients 
to stay home for an additional two weeks and to monitor for symptoms.

[Charon]

stay home an additonal two weeks? I suspect their "gvt" can get south koreans to obey a stay at home order, but My Lord, there is something very wackadoodle about floridians.

They are out again. Good ole spring breakers. we shall get the nursing homes of doom to take these deliberately callous and plain old stupid people whom seemingly must gather on the beaches of florida. eh gads.

There is much truth we have not learned. Thank u Ice. Good article but OMG!