He is in his sixties, from Connecticut and has been infected with Covid for 471 days. More than a year. This was revealed by researchers from Yale University. And after further investigation, the experts also found that three different variants of the virus circulated in the man’s blood, one of which was believed to be extinct. A unique case, the longest Covid infection discovered so far, which has also raised the fear in experts that the virus is rapidly mutating in the bodies of immunocompromised people, as it can evade some immunoprotections.
Surveillance of Covid variants in Connecticut, where Yale is based, revealed that a B.1.517 strain was circulating in the area, not seen around since last year. The different infections were all traced to a patient who lived in the same state, but whose identity was not disclosed. The of him then became a case study, reported on MedRxiv and awaiting review before publication. The researchers speak of “chronic Covid” and also found that the virus in humans was mutating at twice the rate of typical infection: a trait that would have led to the formation of three completely separate and distinct genotypes of the virus. . All in one man.
Chronic Covid, different from long Covid
“This chronic infection has resulted in an accelerated evolution and divergence of SARS-CoV-2, a mechanism that potentially contributes to the emergence of genetically diverse variants of SARS-CoV-2, including Omicron, Delta and Alpha,” they wrote. researchers. The case – they continue – is one of the first and longest detected infections of “chronic Covid”, different from “long Covid” which is that condition occurs when a person still feels the symptoms of the virus even after recovery. In chronic Covid, on the other hand, the individual has an active Covid case and continues to test positive for the virus for long periods of time.
The virus and mutations in the immunocompressed
This study, the Yale researchers add, adds to the growing literature that claims the virus is exploiting immunocompromised people to mutate. There have been other scattered reports of people with severe co-morbidities, such as cancer, experiencing rapid mutations of the virus. Unfortunately, experts say, it is impossible to know how many people are carriers of a rapidly mutating virus and there is little they can do to prevent Covid from mutating frequently once a suitable host is found. It is clear that the rapid mutation of the virus is a danger, since every time a new version of Covid emerges, the world is caught off guard and governments and health authorities face a new threat, the experts conclude.