Doctors in the UK have found the world’s first case of 505 days in a person known to carry the new coronavirus for more than a year.
According to The Guardian, the patient has now passed away.
The patient was infected with the new coronavirus in 2020, possibly due to a weak immune system. During the 505 days of continuous observation before his death, it was found that his new coronavirus test had always been positive. .
Previously, the longest known COVID-19 case was an American cancer survivor in her 40s who had a positive COVID-19 test for 335 days.
The new coronavirus continuously mutates in patients with up to 10 mutations
Researchers from King’s College London and the Guy and St Thomas NHS Foundation have followed nine patients with refractory Covid-19 to see how the virus is spreading how the process evolved.
On average, a Covid-19 infection usually lasts about 10 weeks, but two patients had the virus for more than a year.
In addition to the patient who was infected for 505 days, there is one patient who has tested positive for 412 days to date and will likely exceed the 505-day record at the next test. Last summer, a 72-year-old patient was also positive for the new crown for nearly 10 months.
Patients with weakened immune systems are particularly vulnerable to long-term COVID-19 infection, new research suggests. Four of the nine patients studied died, probably less than half of them directly from the virus.
One of the researchers, Dr. Snell, pointed out that persistent infection may be the source of new coronavirus variants, because the virus also continues to evolve in patients and may acquire new mutations at any time.
Genetic analysis showed that 5 of the 9 patients had at least one mutation in the virus, and the virus in the patient who had been infected for 505 days carried 10 mutations. These mutations include several major variants including Outer Alpha, Gamma, and Omicron.
Many scientists suspect that some worrying variants, such as Omicron, appear in patients with persistent infections, and that other new variants may also originate there.
Virus lurking deep in the lungs cannot be detected by throat swabs
What worried them most was that one patient in the study had been suffering from an “occult” infection.
Unlike asymptomatic infected individuals, “occult infected individuals” tested negative for COVID-19 despite continuing to carry COVID-19.
After contracting Covid-19 in 2021, the patient’s symptoms subsided after treatment and has since tested negative multiple times. Snell said the virus may be lurking deep in the patient’s lungs, where swabs from the nose and throat could not detect it.
Another collaborator on the study, Dr. Nebbia, said their findings will be presented Friday at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Lisbon.
She said, “We urgently need new treatment options to help patients clear persistent Covid-19 infections, which can also prevent the emergence of new variants.”
University of East Anglia professor of medicine Paul Hunter said that, given the study, he thinks it’s possible that some patients have never completely cleared the virus from their bodies, which is why the virus has repeatedly emerged One of the reasons for the variant.
From Frontiers in Life Science
Source: New Evening News, Sina News, Jimu News