Frequency of Re-infection and Severity of Symptoms among COVID-19 PCR Confirmed Patients

Abstract

Objective: The present study is aimed to find the frequency of re-infection and severity of symptomatology among PCR confirmed COVID-19 patients in the current wave of epidemics in Lahore and Islamabad.

Study type, settings & duration: This descriptive study was undertaken at Health Research Institute (HRI) Central Research Centre, National Institute of Health (NIH) Islamabad and HRI-NIH TB Research Centre King Edward Medical University Lahore from March 2022 to July 2022.  

Methodology: A sample size of 248 patients was calculated and a pre-designed questionnaire was used to collect data. Patients receiving COVID-19-positive PCR reports from different laboratories were traced. Patients were contacted telephonically. Data was entered and analyzed using SPSS v.26.0. Symptoms among infection and re-infection subgroups were compared by using the chi-square test.

Results: Participants consisted of 119 (48%) males and 129 (52%) females with mean age of subjects as 35.96±17.94 years. Most of the 186 (75.0%) respondents were fully vaccinated, 41 (16.5%) were partially vaccinated. A total of 93 (37.5%) patients were re-infected with COVID-19 and the duration of re-infection from primary infection ranged from 2-18 months. All the symptoms showed an insignificant difference except tiredness and shortness/difficulty in breathing remained significantly more severe (p-value <0.05) in cases of primary infection as compared to re-infected cases.

Conclusion: The frequency of re-infection remained high in this study while there is not much difference in symptomatology among cases of primary COVID-19 infection and re-infection.