South Korea reports recovered Covid-19 patients testing positive again

Re:South Korea reports recovered Covid-19 patients testing p... by RyanShook on Friday April 10, 2020 @11:10AM (#22833789)

Isn’t the concept of someone being reinfected with the exact same virus basically unheard of?

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Re:South Korea reports recovered Covid-19 patients testing p... by throwaway5752 on Friday April 10, 2020 @11:20AM (#22833901)

We have coronaviruses. There is no "cold" virus really and it's an umbrella term for a few different viruses including coronaviruses. With human adapted coronaviruses - unlike zoonotic covid-19 - you don't get lifetime immunity https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7782/

You can just think of booster immunizations and getting tetanus shots when you're exposed. Why would you need those, otherwise? If you want to learn more looking into memory T and B cells.

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Re:South Korea reports recovered Covid-19 patients testing p... by mythobit on Friday April 10, 2020 @11:14AM (#22833836)

I'm not certain if you are talking specific to coronavirus, but it is not unheard of with viruses. For example, chickenpox/shingles or herpes.

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Re:South Korea reports recovered Covid-19 patients testing p... by pcr0 on Friday April 10, 2020 @11:13AM (#22833823)

No, herpes, chickenpox + shingles would be the counter examples.

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Re:South Korea reports recovered Covid-19 patients testing p... by nkohari on Friday April 10, 2020 @11:29AM (#22834021)

In my understanding, herpes and varicella (chicken pox/shingles) are thought to be "reactivations" of dormant viruses, not reinfections. The virus is never fully eliminated, and sometimes it becomes re-activated.

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