COVID-19 Reinfection in a Nurse Working in Emergency Hospital in Duhok City, Kurdistan Region of Iraq

Novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) or SARS-CoV-2 infection was discovered in December 2019 in Wuhan City, China. The infection became a global pandemic over a period of few months. Post-infection immunity and susceptibility for reinfection is still under investigation. In this report, we present a case of a COVID-19 reinfection in patient who had recovered from an initial infection.

Case Report: 41-year-old male, nurse working in emergency hospital, presented in August 2020 with two days history of fever, sore throat, myalgia, lower back pain, shortness of breath. Then, his oxygen saturation dropped to 80%. COVID-19 infection was proved by a positive RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2 and CT scan of the chest demonstrated bilateral ground glass opacities. After clinical improvement, the patient was discharged from hospital. On 26th of October, he developed fever, and fatiguability. RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2 resulted as positive twice. The infection was mild and no specific treatment was administered to the patient during the second infection. On 6th of November, the patient was asymptomatic. On 7-8th of November, he consecutively tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 twice.

Conclusions: Mild SARS-CoV-2 reinfection may occur rarely due to repeated exposed to the virus in hospital setting. If the occurrence of reinfections is demonstrated to be true, it may change the strategy of infection prevention. Further studies are needed to confirm the possibility of COVID-19 reinfection.