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Making it the longest recorded Covid-19 infection, a 72-year-old man died due to a weakened immune system. The patient, who got shots of COVID vaccines before he contacted the infection, saw the virus mutate more than 50 times in his body.
Researchers found that the Covid virus had mutated over 50 times in the 72-year-old Dutch man's body. (Image: Getty)
New Delhi,UPDATED: Apr 19, 2024 18:49 IST
A Dutch man suffered the longest recorded COVID-19 infection, spanning a staggering 613 days, before he died in the fall of 2023, a study by researchers of the Amsterdam University Medical Center has revealed.
The 72-year-old unnamed man was already suffering with a blood disease, before he got infected with Covid-19 in February 2022, leading to a compromised immune system, reported TIME. The case study of the 72-year-old man will be presented by the researchers at a medical summit in Barcelona next week.
The researchers found that the virus mutated over 50 times in his body, and finally transformed into an ultra-mutated variant, according to TIME.
The 20-month-long Covid infection, researchers say, is the longest recorded one, surpassing the 505-day infection of a British man who died as well.
Despite receiving multiple doses of Covid-19 vaccines before he got infected with the Omicron variant, the patient's immune system failed to keep up.
The virus, over time, showed a remarkable ability to resist medical interventions, including sotrovimab, a prominent Covid antibody treatment, in just a few weeks of being administered.
SUPER-MUTATED VARIANT OF COVID DIDN'T SPREAD
While the mutant variant did not spread beyond the patient, its emergence shows how the pandemic-causing virus can genetically change, giving birth to new variants of the pathogen.
"This case underscores the risk of persistent SARS-CoV-2 infections in immunocompromised individuals," the authors of the study done on the said patient.
"We emphasise the importance of continuing genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 evolution in immunocompromised individuals with persistent infections,” added the study.
The case study of the 72-year-old man by researchers of the Amsterdam University Medical Center, will be presented at the ESCMID Global Congress in Barcelona next week.
The research also showed that around 24% of American adults who were tested positive for Covid-19 have felt its symptoms for more than three months.
Published By:
Sushim Mukul
Published On:
Apr 19, 2024
