Covid-19: Kerala woman tests positive 19 times after 42 days in hospital

Mangalore Today News Network

Kerala, Apr 21, 2020: A 62-year-old woman in Pathanamthitta, in central Kerala has tested positive for coronavirus 19 successive times, which doctors say underlines the erratic behaviour of the Sars-CoV 2 virus that continues to worry health officials who are fighting hard to flatten the Covid-19 curve, Hindustan Times reported.

 

The woman has been in hospital for the last 42 days.

“The 62-year-old woman, who contracted the diseases after she came in contact with the Italy-returned family, tested positive even after 19 tests. She is not showing many symptoms also. We tried combination drugs several times,” said Pathanamthitta district medical officer Dr N Sheeja. She said she has sought the advice of the state medical board in this regard.

She was admitted to the hospital on March 10 after she came in contact with a family which returned from Italy. The family infected eight others. Three-member family came to their home in Kerala’s Ranni on February 29 on a three-week leave and attended many functions before testing positive a week later and transmitted the disease to many others.

“She doesn’t have other health problems now. Though she is asymptomatic she can transmit the disease to others. In Kozencherry government hospital we are planning to transfer her to Kottayam medical college hospital if the next result also turns positive,” said one of the doctors treating her.

The late onset of the disease has now emerged as another worry for overworked health officials. In Kozhikkode (north Kerala) a person returned from Dubai on March 18, tested positive at least 29 days after he was exposed to the virus.

The World Health Organization (WHO) had prescribed a 14-day incubation period for coronavirus but Kerala had extended it to 28 days to ensure that an asymptomatic person or a patient is disinfected completely.

In Pathanamthitta a girl student, who travelled in a compartment in which some Tablighi Jammat members were also travelling, tested positive 22 days after her trip. Under observation she remained asymptomatic throughout but turned positive when her observation period was about to end. She was asymptomatic even after she tested positive on April 6, said doctors.