Mumbai Doctor Tests COVID-19 Positive Thrice

A 26-year-old Mumbai doctor tested positive thrice in 13 months - twice after taking both the doses of COVID-19 vaccine.

A 26-year-old doctor has tested positive for the COVID-19 infection thrice in the past 13 months -- twice after receiving both doses of a vaccine against the virus.

This rare occurrence has happened in the middle of debate over the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines against newer and more aggressive variants of the coronavirus.

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‘A Mumbai based doctor tests COVID-19 positive thrice in one year, twice after being fully vaccinated creates confusion among medical fraternity.’

Swab samples of Dr Shrusthi Halari, who worked at the Mulund Covid Centre in the city, have been collected for genome sequencing as part of a study into occurrence of the infection after being completely inoculated.

According to reports, the doctor's family members, including her father, mother and brother, all of whom have comorbidities, have also contracted the virus. All of them got infected for the first time this month, after receiving both the doses of the vaccine.

The doctor was on Covid duty at the Veer Savarkar Hospital in Mulund when she first contracted the virus on June 17 last year as a mild infection. Later, Dr Halari along with her family took the first dose of vaccination on March 8 this year and the second dose on April 29.

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However, exactly a month later she tested positive for the virus again on May 29 this year. This time the symptoms were mild allowing her to recover well at home but affecting her entire family leading to hospitalization.

“This third time I suffered more…my family and I were hospitalized, needed Remdesivir. My brother and mother have diabetes and my father has hypertension and cholesterol problems. My brother had difficulty breathing, so he was kept on oxygen for two days,” Dr Halari said.

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As per doctors, there is no definitive cause for getting infected thrice. However, some probable reasons include a new coronavirus variant, her immunity levels or an incorrect diagnostic report.

Reinfections, especially amongst doctors serving the Covid-19 ward have been reported from across the world.

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“I have seen patients who became Covid positive after both doses…patients of all ages can have breakthrough infections…but vaccines reduce the effect and help the patient recover quickly,” said Dr Behram Pardiwala, chief of Internal Medicine at Mumbai’s Wockhardt Hospital. Earlier this month an ICMR-funded pre-print study said only 67 of 677 positive RT-PCR samples from across India (from people who had received at least one dose of Covishield or Covaxin) required hospitalization, and only three resulted in deaths.

Source-Medindia