SARS-CoV-2 vaccine breakthrough reinfection in a health-care worker of Iraq: A case report

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected the entire globe since the first isolation of SARS-CoV-2 from patients with severe respiratory illness in Wuhan, China. Although the global vaccination drive is in full swing, many cases of reinfection have also been reported after vaccination. Currently, there is a scarcity of data available on the reinfection and vaccine breakthrough infections in Iraq. In this letter, we have presented a case report on the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine breakthrough reinfection in a health-care worker after completion of the double-dose vaccination. An increased symptom severity was reported on the second infection, which was confirmed to be of Delta variant. Such vaccine breakthrough infection reports have raised important questions regarding the duration of vaccine-mediated immunity and vaccine effectiveness against all circulating variants. These have further emphasized the importance of following non-pharmaceutical interventions by fully vaccinated individuals, especially at health-care settings.