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by: Evangelyn Rodriguez<\/p>\n
(Natural News<\/a>) Some survivors of\u00a0COVID-19 in China\u00a0are\u00a0testing positive again for the coronavirus<\/a>, raising concerns that a second infection by the virus is possible. Some experts \u2014 both local and international \u2014 are also\u00a0questioning the\u00a0accuracy of diagnostic tools used in China, as reports of\u00a0false negative results<\/a>\u00a0have been circulating since last month. This latest development calls into question the Chinese government\u2019s announcement of no new coronavirus cases since March 18, as Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak\u00a0that has now become a pandemic, prepares to lift quarantine measures and re-open the city next month.<\/p>\n According to phone interviews conducted by\u00a0NPR\u00a0<\/em>with\u00a0four Chinese nationals who tested positive for a second time, many of them appear to be asymptomatic carriers, meaning they no longer have symptoms associated with the coronavirus. These people were discharged from the hospital over the past few weeks after their conditions had improved, and their test results came back negative. However, recent tests conducted as a prerequisite for them to receive medical care for other health concerns showed that they were once again\u00a0positive for the coronavirus.<\/p>\n As per China\u2019s prevention guidelines for COVID-19, the government does not include people who test positive for a second time\u00a0in their daily\u00a0new case count. Neither does it consider asymptomatic cases as confirmed coronavirus cases, so these are excluded from official counts.<\/p>\n \u201cI have no idea why the authorities choose not to count [asymptomatic] cases in the official case count. I am baffled,\u201d one of the four interviewees, a front-line doctor in Wuhan who recovered from the disease but has recently\u00a0retested positive, told\u00a0NPR<\/em>.<\/p>\n Speaking in anonymity \u2014 as the Chinese government has been detaining those who criticize its handling of the coronavirus crisis \u2014 four people from Wuhan confirmed that many survivors, including themselves, are now being isolated and put under medical observation after recent test results, which had previously returned negative, said they were once again positive.<\/p>\n According to data from several quarantine facilities in Wuhan, which is where these people are currently being isolated, up to 10 percent of patients discharged from hospitals test positive again after a few weeks. While many of those who retested positive are now asymptomatic, they weren\u2019t so when they first caught the virus.<\/p>\n All four of those interviewed by\u00a0NPR<\/em>\u00a0said that\u00a0they had fallen ill after getting infected. One of them, who said he exhibited only mild symptoms, was quarantined in a makeshift treatment center but was later released after his symptoms disappeared. The other three, two of which are medical doctors, were hospitalized and later discharged after making successful recoveries.<\/p>\n When they tested positive for a second time, none of them were showing any signs of coronavirus infection.<\/p>\n As fears of a possible\u00a0second wave of infection<\/a>\u00a0stir concern among Chinese citizens, virologists say that a re-infection is highly unlikely. They believe it is too soon after recovery, but they say this without certainty. The nature of the virus, after all, is still poorly understood by scientists. And so far, it is also still unclear whether these \u201crecovered\u201d patients, who tested positive for a second time, are once again infectious.<\/p>\n But if a re-infection is improbable, then recovered patients may be retesting positive for the coronavirus due to faulty diagnostics. Back in January, ophthalmologist Dr. Li Wenliang, who tried to warn the medical community\u00a0of a possible outbreak the previous month, said in his Weibo post that he had\u00a0started showing symptoms on January 10<\/a>. He was hospitalized three days later but repeatedly tested negative for the coronavirus for weeks. He was only diagnosed\u00a0correctly with COVID-19 on January 30, but died\u00a0eight days later on February 7,\u00a0according to\u00a0BBC News.<\/em><\/p>\n Wang Chen, a director at the\u00a0Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences<\/em>, also admitted that the diagnostic tools used to test for COVID-19 have low accuracy. According to Wang\u2019s estimates,\u00a0viral RNA tests used in China could only\u00a0accurately identify positive cases 30 to 50 percent of the time, reports\u00a0NPR<\/em>.<\/p>\n On the other hand, Dr. Jeffrey Shaman, a professor of environmental health sciences at\u00a0Columbia University<\/em><\/a>, told the news outlet that\u00a0these diagnostic tests, which amplify fragments of the virus\u2019 genetic material, are also liable to give\u00a0false positive<\/strong>\u00a0results. This is because the RNA they detect could come from residual virus from the initial infection. Recent reports suggest that the coronavirus\u00a0can\u00a0remain inside the bodies of recovered patients<\/a>\u00a0for a median of 20 days.<\/p>\n Hospitals in Wuhan continue to see\u00a0new coronavirus cases<\/a>\u00a0each day,\u00a0reported\u00a0Bloomberg\u00a0<\/em>on Wednesday. According to its source\u00a0Caixin<\/em>,\u00a0an\u00a0independent Chinese news outlet, four new cases of domestic transmission were reported earlier on Monday, signaling that the epidemic in Wuhan is far from over. A local health official also said that he had seen up to\u00a0a dozen new cases a day, all of which were symptom-free<\/a>.<\/p>\n But the Wuhan Health Commission was quick to suppress any fears. In a statement released on March 23,\u00a0it said that only a few of the asymptomatic cases eventually develop symptoms, while the majority are \u201cself-cured.\u201d The commission also said that new asymptomatic patients are being quarantined in specialized wards for 14 days, and would only be\u00a0counted as confirmed coronavirus cases if they develop symptoms within the isolation period. The commission does not believe asymptomatic carriers can transmit the virus to others.<\/p>\n But despite the authorities\u2019 efforts to assuage growing concerns, there are those who do not buy their narrative. According to one of the doctors who spoke to\u00a0NPR<\/em>, what health officials are saying is that they\u00a0haven\u2019t found proof<\/strong>\u00a0of symptom-free carriers\u00a0transmitting the virus to others\u00a0yet<\/em>. He believes it\u2019s not the same as saying they are not truly infectious.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they really are not infectious, then there would be no need to take them back to the hospitals again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Numerous studies have also found evidence that\u00a0asymptomatic people can still infect others<\/a>.\u00a0In February,\u00a0Chinese researchers described\u00a0how a 20-year-old woman\u00a0from Wuhan, who never developed any symptoms associated with COVID-19, infected five of her relatives whom she visited in another city. The woman tested negative on January 26, tested positive on the 28th, then tested negative again on February 5 and 8. None of her infected relatives had traveled anywhere or\u00a0had\u00a0contact with\u00a0a coronavirus patient, suggesting that\u00a0their\u00a0infection was due to asymptomatic transmission<\/a>. While the woman\u00a0remained symptom-free, the five people she infected were hospitalized due to fever and respiratory symptoms.<\/p>\n Another study, published on March 4 in\u00a0Science China Life Sciences<\/em>, reported\u00a024 cases of asymptomatic infection<\/a>, all of whom were identified by screening their close contacts. While five eventually developed symptoms like fever, cough and fatigue, 12 only showed abnormalities in their chest scans and the other seven remained symptom-free. Nevertheless, these asymptomatic patients were able to infect family members, some of whom developed severe pneumonia.<\/p>\n Sources include:<\/strong><\/p>\n NPR.org<\/a><\/p>\n MedicineNet.com<\/a><\/p>\n BBC.com<\/a><\/p>\n DeccanHerald.com<\/a><\/p>\n Bloomberg.com<\/a><\/p>\nRetesting positive for the coronavirus after recovering: Is it due to faulty diagnostics or a second wave of cases?<\/h2>\n
Asymptomatic carriers\u00a0may<\/em>\u00a0still spread the coronavirus<\/h2>\n