MYSURU: About 5-10 per cent of those who have recovered from Covid-19, are coming back to the government-run KR Hospital due to a relapse.
At a time when the cases are continuing to rise, the relapse where a person gets infected with the virus for the second time, and reactivation, where the virus that causes Covid-19 remains inactive in a patient and then surfaces later yet again, is increasingly becoming a matter of concern.
Speaking to The New Indian Express, Dr C P Nanjaraj, Dean and Director of Mysuru Medical College and Research Institute, said that they have been seeing 5-10 per cent of such cases of late. “We do not know how many cases are due to reactivation and how many due to a relapse,” he said.
Due to the several mutations of the virus, one’s immune system is not able to detect the mutated forms, he said. “Otherwise, we would have had herd immunity by now,” he added. The post-Covid-19 complications are also on the rise and many patients, after recovering from the virus, are coming with lung fibrosis and even behavioural changes, he said. “Under such circumstances, the prime defence is social distancing, wearing masks and using sanitizers,” he added.