The patient, who was taking part in a study with eight other patients, died in hospital in 2021, but the case has only now been presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Lisbon, Portugal. It is not known whether the unnamed patient also died of COVID-19 because, according to the doctors, he also had other illnesses in addition to an immune deficiency, but the observations provided important insights into mutations in the virus.

Persistent COVID-19: Rare and different from Long COVID

While Long COVID is becoming more common, permanent COVID-19 illness is rare. In Long COVID, the SARS-CoV-2 virus is only in the body for a while, but the symptoms remain permanent, while in a persistent COVID-19 disease the virus remains active in the body, replicates - and also mutates.

Each time researchers examined patients in the study, they analyzed the genetic code of the virus to make sure it was the same strain and that patients were not infected with COVID-19 more than once. However, genetic sequencing showed that the virus in the British patient changed over time and mutated as it adapted.

The mutations were similar to those that later emerged in widespread variants, Dr. Luke Blagdon Snell, an infectious diseases expert at Guy's & St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, although none of the patients produced new mutants that became variants of concern. There is also no evidence that they transmitted the virus to others.

The study

The study presented at the congress, which has not yet been published, examined which mutations occur in people with particularly long infections and whether variants develop. The study involved nine patients who tested positive for the virus for at least eight weeks. All had weakened immune systems due to organ transplants, HIV, cancer or treatment for other illnesses.

Repeated testing found their infections lasted an average of 73 days. Two had the virus for more than a year. The longest known case confirmed using a PCR test to date lasted 335 days, researchers said.

Five of the nine patients were still alive at the end of the study, which ran from 2020 to 2021. Two of them cleared the infection without treatment, two cleared after treatment, and one still has COVID-19. At the last follow-up in early 2022, this patient's infection had lasted 412 days.

Immunocompromised people remain at risk

It should not be forgotten that the pandemic is far from over even though most of the Corona measures have been lifted. Immunocompromised people in particular, whether due to illness or necessary medication, are at risk of getting Long COVID or the still rare persistent COVID-19.

And therein lies the danger: If persistent COVID-19 occurs more frequently, the possibility of mutations that can develop and spread more frequently in such sufferers also increases - and this possibility increases the more people go shopping and at festivals without protective masks , going to concerts and parties.

Dr. David Strain, from the University of Exeter Medical School, said: “Although omicron did not appear in these individuals, this shows a very clear pathway by which vaccine-resistant variants can arise. While with BA.2 we were fortunate that the mutation was associated with a less severe disease, there is no guarantee that the next iteration will be the same.”

Article image: Pexels/Engin Akyurt
Sources: LiveScience , Time , BBC , AP News

Also interesting:

“Millions will get AIDS from the COVID vaccines by fall.”
This outrageous story has been circulating (again) for a few days. But that is complete nonsense, we are dealing with a story that is regularly told to unsettle people. Covid vaccination does not cause AIDS cases!


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