A desperate Bahrain resident has tested positive for Covid-19 continuously for the last nine months.
The Indian expatriate banker, who asked not to be named, first contracted it in April and has not been able to beat the virus, baffling medics.
“It’s a living nightmare,” the 44-year-old’s distraught wife told the GDN. “We just don’t know which way to turn.”
Perfectly fit and without any underlying medical conditions before catching Covid-19, he hoped to recover within one to two weeks but the virus had other plans. It has left him unable to work, travel or lead a normal life and the ongoing nightmare has taken a heavy toll on his mental and physical well-being.
The man now needs to undergo surgery and his wife has appealed to the authorities, including Indian Ambassador Piyush Srivastava and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to make an exception to pandemic protocol and allow him to travel home for care and treatment.
The man contracted the virus shortly after receiving his first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on April 20. He has since taken nine polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests for Covid-19, all of which have come back positive.
Puzzle
Indian Embassy second secretary Ijhas Aslam told the GDN that the mission was ‘aware’ of the case and remained ‘in touch’ with the banker.
“The embassy is trying to assist him regarding Covid-19 guidelines related to travel between India and Bahrain,” he added.
American Mission Hospital pulmonologist Dr Chellaraja Chellasamy, who has treated the man, told the GDN that the case remained a ‘puzzle’.
“He is experiencing complications that are unusual – he has tested positive repeatedly which remains a puzzle,” admitted Dr Chellasamy. “It’s a rare condition – the virus is replicating and his antibodies are extremely low.
“This is the first-of-its-kind case here as far as I am aware and it requires further investigation.”
Dr Chellasamy has referred the patient to a neurologist for post-Covid-19 treatment. “He now has neurological complications – he is disoriented, forgetful and unable to walk in a straight line,” he said.
“There has been a drop in haemoglobin and severe weight loss, and we have discovered that his brain contains an excess of fluid that may have to be surgically removed.”
Currently, rules mean he is unable to travel due to a lack of a negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, as required by the Indian government’s travel portal (Air Suvidha), in accordance with its Covid-19 protocols.
Many people can test positive for Covid-19 for weeks or even months, but there is good news, they are not likely to be contagious for that long, even if they test positive, and, therefore, are unlikely to transmit the virus to others, according to health experts.
That may explain why his health app now displays a green badge.
“Without the negative PCR test, however, we are unable to book any flights or fulfil the requirements of the Air Suvidha self-declaration form – we are caught up in an unending loop of Covid-19 travel protocols,” his wife added.
“He is not infectious – he shares the same living space with me and our daughter and I was never re-infected. In fact, our daughter was never infected and she had also travelled overseas, for her education.”
The Covid-19 recovered housewife added that her husband was currently on sick-leave and is eager to return to Chennai to be treated for his neurological disorders.
“He may need surgery to make a complete recovery, which is expensive here and travelling home would perhaps help him get answers as to why he still tests positive,” she added.
The man tested positive on April 27, after which the green shield for ‘Covid-19 recovered’ on his BeAware app turned red until it switched back to green this month.
He took eight more tests – on April 16 and 24, June 16, July 1 and 31, September 18, October 30 and December 14 – all of which have returned positive results.
Depression has now set in, said his wife. “He is now forgetful, irritable, suffers from insomnia and is unable to focus on even simple tasks,” she added.
“We have no one here to help and his deteriorating health worries me – he is the breadwinner of the family,” said the woman, who also travelled to India alone to consult with doctors about her husband’s condition. They need him to be physically present to make their own assessment.
Medical reports confirm the patient has been diagnosed as clinically depressed, labelling his condition as idiopathic (caused by an unknown factor).
Globally, it has been reported that a patient in a South African hospital continued to test positive for Covid-19 for almost eight months, while the virus underwent more than 30 genetic shifts.
And in the UK, Dave Smith, a 72-year-old from the English city of Bristol, was recorded as the longest Covid-19 sufferer in the world – for 10 months, just four weeks longer than the Bahrain banker.
raji@gdn.com.bh
&uuid=(email))