NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- A Nevada man contracted COVID-19 twice, marking the first documented case of COVID-19 reinfection in the U.S., according to reports.
The 25-year-old man first fell sick with COVID-19 in mid-April, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a paper published by Lancet Infectious Diseases, a medical journal.
In late May, he started experiencing symptoms again, according to the outlet. He tested positive for COVID-19 again in early June.
The strains of the virus the man contracted "were genetically distinct, signaling that it is unlikely that the man simply remained unknowingly infected with the virus in one, longer bout," the outlet reported.
The man ended up in the hospital the second time he tested positive for COVID-19, as he needed supplemental oxygen, according to the outlet.
"We know that it certainly is in fact possible to be reinfected with this virus, and for the second infection to be as severe, or more severe, than the first one," Mark Pandori, the director of Nevada's state public health lab and a co-author of the paper, told the outlet.
Yale University professor of immunobiology Akiko Iwasaki, however, noted the virus' ability to reinfect doesn't mean efforts to develop a vaccine are futile.
"Just because the natural infection doesn't give protection doesn't mean the vaccines cannot," she told the outlet. "It's a separate issue."
