14% of recovered coronavirus patients in China's Guangdong tested positive again

[brooklynite]

Source: The Straits Times (Singapore)

(CAIXIN GLOBAL) - About 14 per cent of patients who recovered from the novel coronavirus and were discharged from hospitals in southern China's Guangdong province were tested positive again in later check-ups, according to the local health authority.

A positive test suggests the recovered patients may still carry the virus, adding complexity to efforts to control the outbreak.

There is no clear conclusion on why it happens and whether such patients could still be infectious, said Song Tie, deputy director of the Guangdong Centre of Disease Control And Prevention (Guangdong CDC), at a Tuesday (Feb 25) briefing.

Read more: https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/14-of-recovered-coronavirus-patients-in-chinas-guangdong-tested-positive-again

[hellno45]

1. is this something that is unique to this virus or does this happen with others like mers or sars? nt

[lagomorph777]

4. Do we know whether the test is looking for viral DNA, or antibodies?

Antibody tests (very common) really are measuring the body's response to the infection, rather than the infection itself; they are very prone to false positives (e.g. you could fight off another infection but no longer have an active infection) and false negatives (e.g. the infection has compromised your immune system and you can't mount an antibody response.).

MRSA is a bacteria (Staph A).

[tblue37]

23. MERS is a corona virus. It's not MRSA. The ME in MERS refers to Mideast. nt

[Warpy]

6. I'm not sure patients were retested after they'd recovered

but they do know that SARS virus persists in feces for up to 10 months. This is generally an intestinal bug, moving (probably, as of yesterday) from bat feces to pangolins snuffling through leaf litter to a market in China where dodgy peddlers were selling dodgy goods. They still haven't found the exact virus in any species and are now examining insect species in Thailand and other pangolin habitats. However, it seems clear it's mainly an enteric virus in other mammals that somehow turned respiratory in us, maybe via blood spray at slaughter, who knows?

There are still so many unknowns about this one. For one thing, if people still test positive after recovery, are they shedding enough virus to be contagious?

In the meantime, let us not forget that the head of the pandemic team at the CDC was forced out by Republican threats of deep budget cuts. That should be on everybody's lips at the next debate. If it doesn't make a rich man richer, they're not interested in it.

[FM123]

2. Oh no!

To think that those released back into the community after recovery were continuing to spread the virus is very scary news for sure!

[groundloop]

7. nobody knows that for sure, see the above replies.

It depends on the testing method.

[SergeStorms]

10. A zombie virus.

I don't like the sounds of that at all.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

12. Read the OP again. It is NOT known that they are spreading it. Probably are NOT. . . . nt

[LaurenOlimina]

3. Welllllll . fuck

[SunSeeker]

5. Damn. That's scary.

[riversedge]

8. Whow. This is very serious.

[SergeStorms]

9. I suggest rapid and relentless testing...

using the Trump family. The chances of cross species transmittal from Trumps to human beings is still considered too dangerous at this point though, I imagine.

[yaesu]

11. this thing is going to turn this third world shithole country into a killing field thanks to tRump n

Last edited Wed Feb 26, 2020, 10:53 PM - Edit history (1)

[Bernardo de La Paz]

18. No. . . . And you don't seem to know what a "killing field" is. . . . nt

[captain queeg]

13. What a twist

[geardaddy]

14. Wait, don't some viruses lie dormant in those who were infected even after recovery?

And thus would be the reason that they would still test positive for the virus even after they had recovered?

[Wounded Bear]

15. Some viruses are never completely "cured"...

think things like HIV and the various Hepatitus viruses. People become asymptomatic, but still have the virus in them.

Maybe this is one of those. Which is doubly scary. As was discussed above, they don't really know a lot about this one yet.

[geardaddy]

16. Thanks for explaining that

Yeah, that is scary.

[JCMach1]

20. Or is it like mono and stays infectious for a very long time

[geardaddy]

21. Yeah, that's kind of what I was wondering. n/t

[obamanut2012]

22. Yes, including EBV

If you've had mono, you basically have it. Up to 95% of US adults carry it, but it's not active. And,if you are someone who has EBV that has flare ups ie becomes active, you will test positive for it for like a year after the flare up subsides. My GF has this, and we have to be careful when she has an active flare up (it is technically also an STI), because it's spread through saliva and vaginal fluids (and semen).

[orangecrush]

17. Not good

What a mess.

[LTG]

19. Guangdong Province is very close to Hong Kong

There is a lot of traffic, in both goods and people, between Guangdong and Hong Kong. It is up and down the Pearl River. I’ve made the trip myself. A fairly short trip by boat. An area with lots of fishing boats, so travel by anyone wishing to make the trip is not hard.

Hong Kong has at least 85 cases and containment could be difficult there. Being a major shipping port and financial center shutting it down could have worldwide consequences. Travel to all corners of the world from the is frequent and heavy.