What do US President Joe Biden, President of INC Sonia Gandhi and politician Priyanka Gandhi have in common? All three, like many others, have suffered from ‘Covid-19 reccurrence’ or ‘rebound Covid’, which has become a matter of concern for health experts, as symptoms of the infection reappear (cold, cough, fever) and the test becomes positive again, within a short span of recovery.

Covid recurrence or rebound Covid is caused by Omicron sub variant BA 2.75, and is known to spread infection faster than the earlier variants of Covid-19. Dr Wiqar Shaikh, professor of Medicine, Grant Medical College and Sir J.J. Group of Hospitals explained that a treatment being used in the USA since late 2021 for Covid is Paxlovid (a combination of 2 anti-viral drugs viz. Nirmatrelvir and Ritonavir). Dr Shaikh quoted an article from the journal Nature on August 12, which concluded that it is surprisingly common for Covid to return in already infected patients. However, the rebound is fiercer and more common in people treated with Paxlovid. In the USA, 25 per cent to 27 per cent of people infected by Covid reported a rebound in their symptoms. Dr Shaikh said it could be due to an initial high viral load or due to a lingering response to Covid from the body’s immune system. “Paxlovid has caused more Covid rebound cases compared to in those who have not taken the drug,” Dr Shaikh said.