Delhi: 64-year-old man with five comorbidities fights Covid

His family is perplexed by what doctors say could be a false negative or a false positive result, or simply a case of the second test picking up non-infective residual fragments of the viral genetic material from the past infection.

A 64-year-old man coronavirus disease patient with at least four chronic illnesses -- cancer, kidney failure, heart disease and tuberculosis -- in addition to suffering a bout of pneumonia, all diagnosed in the past three months, was thought to have beaten Covid-19 and was discharged from Lok Nayak Hospital on Sunday, only to test positive for the virus again on Tuesday at a private hospital.

The patient, Raj Dev Dixit, is a retired professor who lives in outer Delhi’s Najafgarh, where he runs an NGO called Garima that works for the welfare of women and children.

His family is perplexed by what doctors say could be a false negative or a false positive result, or simply a case of the second test picking up non-infective residual fragments of the viral genetic material from the past infection.

The patient, Raj Dev Dixit, is a retired professor who lives in outer Delhi’s Najafgarh, where he runs an NGO called Garima that works for the welfare of women and children.

According to his son Amit Kumar, Dixit had no diagnosed illness and appeared healthy until three months ago. “He had none of the ailments he was diagnosed with in the past three months. He used to walk 10km every day,” Kumar, who is an assistant director at the ministry of Ayush in Kolkata.

Kumar said that on May 18, Dixit was suddenly takenl ill and lost his appetite, which prompted his family to move him to a hospital where he was diagnosed with one failed kidney. “Over the next few weeks, he was diagnosed with myeloma (a cancer of the plasma cells) and his heart was found working at 20% of its capacity,” Kumar said, adding that they got him admitted to Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Hospital in Rohini where he received chemotherapy and dialysis.

“As he grew weaker, we were told that he had developed tuberculosis and later, pneumonia, “ Kumar said.

On July 17, Dixit tested positive for Covid-19 at the cancer hospital.Dixit was admitted to Lok Nayak Hospital on July 18 where he got plasma therapy for the coronavirus disease, and dialysis treatment every alternate day.

Dr Suresh Kumar, director of Lok Nayak Hospital, said this was a “rare” case of a man with four chronic illnesses, plus pneumonia, also contracting Covid-19.

“So far, we have admitted 7,600 Covid patients here, but only 60 of them had multiple comorbidities. While the others had a maximum of three comorbid conditions, Dixit’s is a rare case of a man with five other diseases,” Dr Kumar said.

“Dixit had a very low chance of survival. In such cases, usually, if one disease is treated, another starts causing trouble,” he said.

But on Saturday, when the patient was tested for Covid for the fifth time at Lok Nayak Hospital, the results came negative and he was discharged on Sunday.

“We were so encouraged by this particular result that we decided that this case should feature in all leading international medical journals,” the doctor said.

On Monday, Dixit was admitted for dialysis in Venkateshwar Hospital in Dwarka, where he was tested again for Covid-19 and the result showed him to be positive for the viral disease.

A doctor of Venkateshwar Hospital, who didn’t want to be identified, said the hospital used the approved Genexpert test which turned up positive and the patient was recommended an RT-PCR (reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction) for reconfirmation. “He is stable now,” the doctor said on Wednesday afternoon. The RT-PCR repeat test is yet to take place.

Dr Kumar said recovered patients can test positive again. “Sometimes, the dead virus in the nostrils of patients is picked up in the swab and that gives a false positive result. We’ll need to see the results of a repeat test,” Dr Kumar said, offering to treat him again at Lok Nayak Hospital, if needed.