June 17, 2020 | 10:55am | Updated June 17, 2020 | 12:03pm
A Texas woman said she tested positive for coronavirus again after recovering months earlier from the illness.
Meredith McKee said she beat the virus, even donating plasma twice, before she was admitted again Friday to Texas Health Presbyterian in Dallas, news station DFW-TV reported.
“I was floored when it was positive,” McKee said of her COVID-19 test results.
Four months ago, during her first spell with the illness, McKee experienced “clear and obvious” symptoms, the outlet reported.
“I had a dry cough like you would not believe. It would not stop,” McKee said.
She eventually beat the virus and tested positive for antibodies, which suggested that she had built up some immunity to the illness.
But last week, McKee went with high blood pressure and a headache to the hospital, where she tested positive again for the virus.
McKee said her doctors believe the virus became dormant after her first round and then re-emerged.
Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, said a second positive result could mean that the virus is taking a long time to leave the body, the outlet reported.
“It’s possible that people could shed remnants of the virus for some period of time. That doesn’t mean anything is wrong with them or that they are contagious,” Schaffner told the outlet.
McKee said she’s struggling with the possibility that she exposed others unknowingly to the virus.
“I’m mortified and I’m seriously devastated,” McKee told the outlet.
