COVID-19 Reinfection in a Young Medical Doctor: A Case Report

Abstract

There is hardly any report of reinfection due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in medical professionals from Nepal. We report a case of a 32-year-old doctor with COVID-19 reinfection. Symptoms during the first infection were mild. After one month, he was reinfected and developed diarrhea as well as a continuous high fever. His d-dimer and ferritin were much increased. Computed tomography chest showed bilateral lymph nodes, minimal pleural effusion, and scattered linear fibrosis. After discharge, his depression and myalgia persisted for one month. During reinfection, his symptoms were more severe and cost of treatment was almost eight times his monthly salary and he could not work for six weeks. Possible reasons for severe reinfection and differential diagnoses like cytokine storm, multisystem inflammatory syndrome, reactivation of COVID-19, and infection due to new variants were discussed. Whether infected or vaccinated or not, all should take recommended vaccination and primary-preventive as well as health-promotive measures.

Keywords

• COVID-19; reinfection; new variants; reactivation; vaccination.