Story By: James King, Sub-Editor: Marija Stojkoska, Agency: Newsflash
An Egyptian pharmacist who has been infected with the coronavirus three times in seven months said the latest infection was the worst of all.
Although those who survive being infected with COVID-19 are generally assumed to have immunity, there have been cases of people testing twice, and Hanan Lutfi, 35, has now been tested positive for the disease on three separate occasions after previously being tested negative.
The young woman who works in the Egyptian province of Mansura said that her work as a pharmacist meant that she was frequently dispatching medicines to those infected, and as a result of being in their proximity has now caught the disease for the third time.
She said: “I first caught the disease in April and went back to work afterwards but then got infected again in September.”
On both occasions, she recovered and was tested negative, but now she has been tested positive again for the third time, and this time has been hospitalised.
Staff at the Al-Silaniyah at Mansoura Hospital confirmed that she could not breathe without extra oxygen, and had a fever.
Hanan said that this time it was the most serious and that she had been diagnosed with lung clots.
In a show of support, her friends who are unable to visit her stood the hospital with the sign describing her as a “national heroine” and saying “our country needs you”.
Speaking by telephone with local media she said it was a blessing that she was at least 35 and young enough to fight off the disease, but it was so aggressive it was clear why many older people were simply not surviving.
Dr Adel Khattab, a member of the state Higher Virology Committee, told Gulf News: “Those catching the coronavirus twice are not many in the world. Those getting infected three times are definitely a rarity.”
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