Two European patients are confirmed to have been reinfected with COVID-19, raising concerns about the immunity of individuals to the coronavirus as the world struggles to tame the pandemic.
The cases, in Belgium and the Netherlands, follow a report this week from Hong Kong researchers on a man there who had contracted another strain of the virus four and a half months after it was declared recovered-the first such second infection to be documented.
This has raised fears about the effectiveness of potential vaccines against the virus that have killed hundreds of thousands of people, though experts say that there would need to be many more cases of re-infection to justify these.
Belgian virologist Marc Van Ranst said the Belgian case was a woman who first contracted COVID-19 in March, and then again in June with a different strain of coronavirus. Other re-infection cases have likely surfaced, he said.
Van Ranst told Reuters TV that the woman in her 50s had very few antibodies after the first infection, though the sickness may have been limited. Re-infection cases were likely limited exceptions, he said, though it was too early to tell and many were likely to surface in the weeks to come.
The new coronavirus appeared more stable than the influenza virus, he added, but it was changing.
"Viruses mutate and that means a potential vaccine will not be a vaccine that will last forever, 10 years, probably not even 5 years. This will have to be redesigned quite regularly, just as with flu,' he said.
Van Ranst, who sits on some Belgian COVID-19 committees, said it would not surprise the vaccine designers.
"We'd love to have the virus more stable than it's, but you can't force nature."
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