A cancer survivor woman has been infected with the Corona virus for almost a year. He is listed as the patient with the longest COVID-19 case ever reported.
The 47-year-old woman was first hospitalized for COVID-19 in the spring of 2020 at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Maryland, USA. Her infection continued for 335 days, was tracked by repeated positive COVID-19 tests, and developed symptoms that required supplemental oxygen at home.
Although his test came back positive, the level of the virus in his body was barely detectable for months after his initial infection. Then in March 2021, the virus levels spiked again.
The researchers compared the genomes of samples collected during the original infection with newer ones and found that the viruses were the same. In other words, these patients were not reinfected, but continued to harbor the same virus for almost a year.
Quoted from Live Science, the new Corona virus may have survived for so long in the woman's body because she has a compromised immune system due to previous cancer treatment.
"The case of infection in a patient with a weakened immune system gives you an idea of how the virus roams the genetic space," said study author Elodie Ghedin, a molecular virologist at the NIH.
He said by analyzing samples from these patients and others with chronic infections, researchers could see how the virus developed.
Chronic infections are rare, but can lead to new variants, because the virus has more time and room to thrive in a body with a weakened immune system.