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This fella doesn't seem too worried about it...
Paul Hunter, professor in medicine, at the University of East Anglia cautions against reading too much into the case of a Japanese woman who has tested positive for coronavirus for a second time.
In remarks distributed by the Science Media Centre he said:
“So there are a two possibilities
“1. This is indeed a relapse of the illness – This was seen is SARS but in someone who was being treated with steroids. It is possible that the illness could be biphasic as suggested by Dr Tierno though this is unlikely to be common based on current information.
“2. She has a prolonged excretion of virus from her initial infection and tests were either not done or were not done sufficiently well or enough to confirm clearance. It does appear that swabs for the virus are not 100% reliable. In this case it is even possible that the recent sore throat maybe unrelated. COVID-19 tends to cause upper respiratory tract symptoms rather less frequently that did SARS.
“I would caution against reading too much into this report given the lack of information. However, the report reinforces the fact that we have to investigate all such findings really thoroughly and report such information if we are to make the best decisions based on sound scientific evidence. At this time I would council against changing management guidelines based on this case but we do need to always keep them under review.”
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villa-ru
Which is, from my perspective at least, good news.
I do find the evidence that people have caught it, been cured and then caught it again, worrisome. I wonder whether the second time is milder or whether one's weakened state makes death a more likely consequence.
We are taking every conceivable precaution as my demented 84 year old father in law is in considerable jeopardy. Also, if my wife gets ill, I am not sure who will look after him.