For the first time, an Israeli man who previously recovered from the coronavirus was found Sunday to be reinfected with the so-called South African strain, Hebrew media reported.
The diagnosis came amid continued uncertainty on the effectiveness of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine that Israel is using for its mass inoculation program against the new strains of the virus.
Ziv Yaffe, 57, from the central region of the country, recently returned from Turkey. Speaking to Channel 12 news, he said that whereas during his first infection in August he had “all the symptoms,” the second time around he felt fine.
Yaffe returned to Israel on January 16. By January 23, he had a bit of a runny nose and decided to get a virus test, as he was participating in follow-up research at the Assaf Harofeh Medical Center. The test showed that he was reinfected and further testing revealed that he had caught the South African mutation.
Shai Efrati, head of research and development at the medical center, told the station that Yaffe’s case was unique because doctors had a complete medical record of his bouts with the virus.
“It is the first time that we have a full record, of infection, recovery, reinfection, and that the antibodies that he had protected him from the mutation,” Efrati said.
“What we learn is that when there are antibodies, they protect against illness,” he said.
