Photo Credit: Selvanegra

The following is a summary of “How does the SARS-CoV-2 reinfection rate change over time? The global evidence from systematic review and meta-analysis,” published in the March 2024, issue of Infectious Diseases by Chen et al.

Despite a significant rise in reinfection reports in SARS-CoV-2, the reinfection rate over time is not clearly defined.

Researchers conducted a retrospective study to determine the global rate of reinfection among various countries. 

They utilized cross-sectional studies from journals like PubMed, Web of Science, and Medline up to March 16, 2023. Meta-regression was employed to conduct subgroup analyses based on age, country, study type, population, and time-varying reinfection rate. The Newcastle-Ottawa and Joanna Briggs Institute critical appraisal tool assessed bias risk.

The results examined 55 studies involving 111,846 cases of SARS-CoV-2. The reinfection rate was 0.94% for the pool of patients (95% CI: 0.65-1.35%). In subgroup analyses, pooled reinfection rates varied by reinfection variant and study type (P<0.05). The reinfection rate fluctuated with time based on meta-regression.

Investigators concluded that overall infection rates varied over time, but the peak of the second wave of reinfection was lower than that of the first wave. SARS-CoV-2 is at risk of reinfection, and the Omicron variant had a higher reinfection rate than other known variants. 

Source: bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12879-024-09225-z