‘I didn’t think I could get it again’ – health worker gets virus twice in two months
A HEALTH worker who tested positive for coronavirus in September was left shocked to discover she had contracted the virus again this month.
Shanie Thomas, from Aberdare, tested positive for coronavirus on September 19 after being around her nan, who had received a positive test result.
At the time Shanie, who works as a healthcare assistant at Swansea’s Singleton Hospital, suffered with mild symptoms of the virus – mainly a sore throat.
On Saturday, nearly two months later, Shanie was shocked to discover that once again a test result had come back positive, as she started to become ill with the symptoms.
She had taken the second test after a call from track and trace to tell her a colleague had tested positive.
“The first time, I had a slight sore throat but I was a lot worse the second time,” said 24-year-old Shanie.
“I didn’t think I could catch it again. I thought to myself it is the same strain and it was still in my system but because it was over 42 days they said it couldn’t be.
“I am okay in myself but the sore throat is a lot worse. I have lost my taste and smell, which I didn’t last time. I feel really lethargic, especially in the evenings.”
At first Shanie thought there was a possibility it could be a false positive but she started to develop the symptoms and on Saturday her throat became hoarse. By Monday morning she was unable to taste or smell anything.
“Everyone is baffled, they don’t really know how it has happened.”
Shanie explained that she volunteered to work on the Covid ward at the hospital after having the virus in September.
“I volunteered because I know I had Covid and there was a lot of high-risk staff who didn’t want to go, so I thought I would go myself. I didn’t think I would catch it again.”
Shanie lives with her parents, who were tested both in September and last week, but they received negative results.
“The first woman I spoke to from track and trace was baffled, and the second lady was. No one really knows how it happened,” she added.
“I think I just have a poor immune system.”
The healthcare assistant, who hopes to become a nurse through the hospital’s internal trainee scheme, is now self-isolating until she can return to work.
Reinfections of coronavirus are very rare, but a report released last month showed that it is possible to get Covid-19 twice as well as it being more severe the second time.
Antibodies are produced by the body in response to an infection and can usually be found in the blood around two weeks after catching it.
The case report, published in Lancet Infectious Diseases, details a handful of people who have caught the virus for the second time, as little as 48 days apart.