Researchers: Patient continues to test positive for COVID after more than 470 days
A pre-print study from researchers at Yale University found at least three new lineages of the COVID-19 virus that had evolved in a patient who has been infected with the virus since late 2020.
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Jul 7, 2022, 10:03 PM
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Updated 987 days ago
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588ds agoA pre-print study from researchers at Yale
University found at least three new lineages of the COVID-19 virus that
had evolved in a patient who has been infected with the virus since late 2020.
"This was just a single person, who had been testing
positive continuously," said Dr. Crispin Chaguza.
Researchers say that Connecticut patient has a form of cancer
that weakens their immune response.
"The patient had almost undetectable antibodies and also very low levels of T cells,"
said Chaguza.
Though symptoms soon faded, the patient was still testing
positive for infectious COVID-19 in late February of this year - 471 days
later.
Chaguza says by seven months in, several different
forms of the virus that causes COVID-19 were competing for dominance in the
patient's body.
"In total, we found about three distinct
SARS-COV-2 lineages that had emerged within this patient,” said Chaguza.
Some researchers suggest variants like Omicron may have
been produced by similar, chronic infections.
Chaguza says that's why it should be a priority to track and
treat chronic infections.
"It's important that we do more proactive surveillance to
detect - to try and understand how many people are chronically infected with
SARS-COV-2,” he said.
Chaguza says while none of the lineages in this patient posed
any real danger, we can't be sure where the next Delta or Omicron will come
from.
"Some of these less important variants may evolve into
something which can cause a big epidemic wave,” he said.
Researchers say that patient is still testing
positive for COVID-19 more than 18 months after infection.
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