Researchers from the Netherlands have reported an extremely long COVID-19 infection in a man who died last year – and warn of the emergence of more dangerous variants of the coronavirus.
The older man, who was immuno-compromised due to previous illnesses, was admitted to a hospital in Amsterdam in February 2022 with a COVID-19 infection, according to a statement.
He was continuously positive for the coronavirus until his death in October 2023 for a total of 613 days.
Other cases of very long infections in people whose immune systems could not adequately fight the virus have previously been reported.
The researchers, led by Magda Vergouwe from the University of Amsterdam, plan to present the results at a congress of the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Barcelona on April 27-30.
The case is also interesting for researchers because the coronavirus can change particularly strongly in people who have been infected for a long time. This could lead to variants of the virus emerging that can more easily overcome the immune systems of healthy people.
Researchers in the Netherlands repeatedly took samples from the man to analyze the coronavirus's genetic material. They found more than 50 mutations compared to the Omicron variant BA.1 that was circulating at the time, including those that would allow the virus to evade the immune defense. Just 21 days after the man had received a certain anti-coronavirus drug, the virus also developed signs of resistance to it.
The man eventually died from a flare-up of one of his previous illnesses. As far as is known, he had not infected anyone with his mutated version of the coronavirus, also known under its scientific name SARS-CoV-2.
This case "highlights the risk of new immune-evasive SARS-CoV-2 variants emerging in immuno-compromised patients," the researchers say in the press release.
They warn that the extensive development of the virus in a single patient could lead to the emergence of unique variants.
It is essential to closely monitor the coronavirus's evolution in immunocompromised individuals. They added that variants could emerge and spread in society, which is less susceptible to the immune systems of healthy people.
