What to make of reports that patients who recovered re-tested positive later?
FROM THE HILL:
(EXCERPT)
Scientists agree reinfection is an unlikely explanation for patients who test positive a second time, according to the Los Angeles Times, and note the possibility that testing errors, and releasing patients from hospitals too prematurely, are more likely the reason for reports of patients who retest positive.
“If you get an infection, your immune system is revved up against that virus,” Keiji Fukuda, director of Hong Kong University’s School of Public Health, told the Los Angeles Times. “To get reinfected again when you’re in that situation would be quite unusual unless your immune system was not functioning right.”
Fukuda told the paper that it’s more likely patients are being released from hospitals while carrying dormant fragments of the disease that are not infectious, but resemble the virus when tested.
“The test may be positive, but the infection is not there,” he said.
In a hearing before the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Thursday, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, was asked if people who have contracted the virus might now be immune.
“We haven’t formally proved it, but it is strongly likely that that’s the case,” Fauci said. “Because if this acts like any other virus, once you recover, you won’t get reinfected.”
Can TDS ever be cured in any individual?
I agre with that statement to a degree..BUT, and yes there is always a “BUT” does the virus change?
Most other do, dont they?
So once you catch a cold, you won't get a cold again?
PCR tests, because they detect DNA or RNA fragments, are not useful as tests of cure/reinfection.