ROCHESTER, N.Y. – “People think I’m crazy,” said Kristen Kruger, who says she has tested positive for COVID-19 18 times in the last five years.

Kruger shared photos with News10NBC’s Chief Investigative Reporter Berkeley Brean of nine of those positive tests, from 2022 through January of this year. The positive red line is faint but visible.

Berkeley Brean met Kruger inside the Equal Grounds Coffee Shop on South Avenue, about a block from her home. She was nervous sitting there, as she feels nervous in public.

“A few weeks ago I had COVID, for the 18th time,” Kruger said.

Brean asked Kruger if she thinks people believe her story.

“Well, the ones closest to me believe me because they know, they see me,” Kruger responded.

Berkeley Brean: “But if you talk to other people, strangers?”

Kristen Kruger: “People think I’m crazy.”

Dr. Ann Falsey at UR Medicine, who worked on the first COVID vaccine trials, thinks it could be a combination of factors causing Kruger’s repeated positive tests.

“We do know you can get re-infected with COVID. People have become ill as their immunity wanes and the circulating virus changes,” Dr. Falsey said.

When Brean shared the photos of Kruger’s tests with Dr. Falsey and asked if she had ever heard of anything like it, she responded:

“Theoretically, if you tested yourself multiple times after the first few months, but I personally have never heard of someone with 18 positive tests.”

Kruger says she had a bad reaction to the first COVID vaccine shot so she never got a booster. She admits she has health problems that might affect her immune system. She feels like she’s lived in isolation the last five years.

“I got a job working from home. I try not to go out in public places,” Kruger said.

Berkeley Brean: “I wonder if you’ve ever said to yourself – geez, maybe I am crazy.”

Kristen Kruger: “Uh, yes I have but the symptoms don’t lie.”

There was a case in Boston where a woman tested positive 12 times, which doctors chalked up to long COVID. However, the doctors don’t think that’s a possibility in Kruger’s case, as long COVID lives in the tissues of the heart and lungs, not the nose, so it wouldn’t cause repeated positive tests.

Kruger is trying to get her doctor to refer her to a specialist to investigate further.

A.I. assisted with the formatting of this story. Click here to see how WHEC News 10 uses A.I.