A second COVID-19 illness may be far more risky to one’s health than the first, according to a new study of Veterans Administration data. These elevated risks occur no matter the patients’ vaccination status, investigators said.
The study followed outcomes in 5.8 million VA patients. A second infection with SARS-CoV-2 more than tripled the odds that a patient would be hospitalized and doubled the risk of death, investigators reported. Reinfected patients were also more likely to have COVID-19-related complications in an array of organ systems. These included problems with the lungs, cardiovascular system, blood, diabetes, gastrointestinal system, kidneys, mental health, musculoskeletal health and neurological disorders.
These reinfection-related health risks were most pronounced in the acute phase of the illness, but was still apparent six months after recovery, reported Ziyad Al-Aly, MD, of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. What’s more, the risk was cumulative, rising with the number of COVID-19 infections, he said.
Notably, elevated health risks were found in both patients who were unvaccinated and in those who had received one or more COVID-19 shots before being reinfected, the researchers reported.
The takeaway? “The evidence suggests that for people who already had a first infection, prevention of a second infection may protect from additional health risks,” Al-Aly and colleagues concluded. The authors also urged health officials to keep SARS-CoV-2 infection prevention a top goal of public policy.
The results may not be broadly representative, the researchers noted. The VA facility patient population tends to be older and skew heavily white and male.
The study was published in Nature Medicine.
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