Five seniors in a Kentucky nursing home who’d previously been diagnosed with COVID-19 suffered a more severe form of the illness after a second infection, indicating a need for vigilance, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.
“The findings of this study highlight the importance of maintaining public health mitigation and protection strategies that reduce transmission risk, even among persons with a history of COVID-19 infection,” according to the CDC report released on Thursday.
The CDC reported that five out of 12 nursing home residents who had been diagnosed with COVID-19 during the first wave, spanning from July through August, tested positive again during the second wave, spanning from October through November. Those five reinfected patients each had more than three chronic underlying health conditions that worsened the severity of illness due to the coronavirus and increased the risk of death.
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“Although three of the five patients with recurrent COVID-19 were asymptomatic during their first infectious episode, all five experienced symptoms during their second infectious episode,” the report said. “One resident patient required hospitalization and subsequently died.”
All five patients tested positive a second time in a facility where the virus was already circulating. In fact, three of those five reinfected patients had roommates in the facility who had tested positive earlier, “confirming direct exposure.”
The CDC maintained that the data to confirm that older adults are at a higher risk of a second, more severe infection is in limited supply. Still, the agency advised healthcare personnel in skilled nursing facilities to resist falling into a sense of security in believing that previous infection provides immunity.
“The level and duration of postinfection immunity in persons with an aging immune system is unknown, but the potential health consequences of reinfection among [skilled nursing facility] populations remain serious,” the agency said.
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The coronavirus has spread rapidly throughout nursing homes across the United States, as the highly contagious pathogen thrives in enclosed spaces populated by seniors, the age group most vulnerable to serious and sometimes fatal illness.
