A patient with compromised immunity sustained continuous acute coronavirus infection for over 750 days, according to Science Alert. Throughout this extended period, the individual maintained ongoing respiratory complications that resulted in persistent COVID-19 and required hospital treatment on five separate occasions.
Despite the prolonged timeframe, this patient's medical situation represents a distinct condition from long COVID, as reported by Science Alert. Rather than symptoms persisting after viral clearance, this case involved the active SARS-CoV-2 infection phase continuing beyond two years.
Although this exceptional duration might appear relevant only to medically vulnerable individuals, chronic infections carry broader implications for the general population, according to US researchers in their latest study published by Science Alert.
"Long-term infections allow the virus to explore ways to infect cells more efficiently, and [this study] adds to the evidence that more transmissible variants have emerged from such infections," Harvard University epidemiologist William Hanage explained to Sophia Abene at Contagion Live.
"Effectively treating such cases is hence a priority for both the health of the individual and the community," Hanage stated to Science Alert.
Genetic examination of viral specimens gathered from this patient spanning March 2021 through July 2022 demonstrated the virus's activities during its prolonged invasion, as conducted by Boston University bioinformatician Joseline Velasquez-Reyes and research colleagues from Science Alert.
Within this patient, the virus' genetic change frequency resembled rates typically observed throughout community spread, according to Science Alert. Additionally, several mutations showed striking similarities, with spike protein changes matching positions identified in the omicron SARS-CoV-2 variant.
Inside a single individual, identical mutation categories that produced the rapidly-reproducing omicron variant were developing once again, Science Alert reported. This evidence supports the hypothesis that omicron-type modifications evolved from selection forces the virus encounters within human bodies, the research team noted. Science Alert reported that long COVID can cause changes in people's brains, as documented in research by Rua et al., published in Brain, 2024.
This patient, diagnosed with advanced HIV-1, suspects initial SARS-CoV-2 exposure occurred during mid-May 2020, Science Alert stated. At that time, the individual was not undergoing antiretroviral treatment and could not obtain essential medical attention despite experiencing respiratory complications, headaches, body pain, and fatigue.
This 41-year-old individual presented with immune helper T-cell levels of merely 35 cells per microliter of blood, which accounts for the virus's ability to maintain infection for such duration, Science Alert noted. Normal ranges span 500 to 1,500 cells per microliter.
Fortunately, in this particular instance, the persistent pathogen did not demonstrate high infectiousness, according to Science Alert. "The inferred absence of onward infections might indicate a loss of transmissibility during adaptation to a single host," Velasquez-Reyes and the research team concluded in Science Alert.
Nevertheless, no assurance exists that other infections establishing prolonged presence within hosts will undergo similar evolutionary trajectories, prompting expert concern and demands for continued COVID surveillance and universal healthcare accessibility, Science Alert reported.
