Two European patients in Netherlands and Belgium respectively have been re-infected with corona virus that has led to deaths of thousands of people worldwide, according to report.
Report states that two European patients are confirmed to have been re-infected with the virus and this has raised concerns about people’s immunity to the virus.
The news follows a report this week by researchers in Hong Kong about a man there who had been re-infected four and a half months after being declared recovered.
Virologist Marion Koopmans was cited saying the patient in the Netherlands was an older person with a weakened immune system.
Koopmans, an adviser to the Dutch government, said re-infections had been expected.
She said “That someone would pop up with a re-infection, it doesn’t make me nervous.
“We have to see whether it happens often.”
Dutch Health Ministry officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Belgian virologist Marc Van Ranst told Belgian broadcaster VRT he had not been surprised by the Hong Kong re-infection.
He said “For us it was not news because we have also had such a case in Belgium.
“I think that in the coming days that we will see other similar stories … These could be exceptions, but do exist and it’s not just one.
“It’s not good news.”
The Belgian case was a woman who had contracted COVID-19 for a first time in the second week of March and for a second time in June.
Van Ranst said that in cases such as the Belgian woman’s in which the COVID-19 symptoms were relatively mild, enough antibodies might not have been created by the body to prevent a re-infection, although they might have helped limit the sickness.
