{"id":3165,"date":"2021-11-04T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-04T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/?p=3165"},"modified":"2021-10-21T09:46:29","modified_gmt":"2021-10-21T09:46:29","slug":"the-longest-ever-covid-19-case-lasted-335-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/the-longest-ever-covid-19-case-lasted-335-days\/","title":{"rendered":"The Longest-Ever COVID-19 Case Lasted 335 Days"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At this point, it\u2019s no longer surprising to hear headlines about the COVID-19 pandemic. We\u2019ve seen how clearly its dangerous Delta variant spread across the world<\/a>, and also how our dedicated scientists and health professionals are working around the clock to lift humanity off this unfortunate event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around 242 million people have already been infected with COVID-19 one way or another, whether you showed symptoms or you\u2019re just asymptomatic and are\/were none the wiser. Nevertheless, it\u2019s important for us to isolate ourselves should we observe symptoms or obtain a positive test for the notorious coronavirus. Isolations in this case would usually last some 14 days, depending on local policies in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Patients who test positive for COVID-19 are often asked to stay in isolation for some 14 days, with some even tasked to stay in isolation rooms and facilities\u2014much like this one in Universidade da Madeira in Portugal. (PESP\/Wikimedia Commons, 2020) <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

One particular 47-year-old American woman, however, had a particularly lengthy bout with COVID-19: she tested positive\u2014consistently\u2014for a total of 335 days. The standout finding was made available for preprint at MedRxiv<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was hospitalized for COVID-19 at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) campus in Bethesda, Maryland, USA all the way back in the spring of 2020\u2014and she was only released by April this year. Between the two dates, she had continuously tested positive for COVID-19, making her infection duration the longest-recorded one so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center is one of the many facilities surrounding the National Institutes of Health campus in Bethesda, Maryland. (NIH\/Wikimedia Commons, 2008) <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The woman constantly felt a shortness of breath, and kept coughing despite the initial two weeks having passed. She would eventually be returned home, but she still needed supplemental oxygen. According to a statement by NIH infectious disease specialist Veronique Nussenblatt: \u201cSometimes she felt better, sometimes she felt worse.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Experts continuously tested her months later, and they kept coming back positive. They had initially thought that the tests were simply detecting viral \u201cfragments,\u201d which were roughly common with people infected with COVID-19 for extended periods of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, her case would soon become a unique case study into just how long infections can stay in an individual, and how viruses can evolve inside an infected person\u2019s body over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of particular interest is that she was actually considered immunocompromised; she was actually diagnosed with lymphoma<\/em>, and her treatment three years ago was primarily CAR T-cell therapy<\/em>. The therapy left the woman with little to no B cells<\/em>, which were immune cells that were responsible for producing antibodies and regulating immune systemic function.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A follow-up COVID-19 test on the woman just from March of 2021 showed her viral load actually increasing compared to levels from earlier tests, leading experts to ponder on whether she had been reinfected, or if she had remained infected this whole time. Nussenblatt followed: \u201cI\u2019ve never heard of a transplant patient with flu for a year; […] that\u2019s a really long time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the help of NIH molecular virologist Elodie Ghedin and NIH computational biologist Alllison Roder, the viruses obtained on the woman\u2019s body were sequenced, then compared with the viruses obtained from her during her earlier tests from the previous year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These follow-up tests seemed to confirm that the virus that infected her several months ago was virtually identical to the virus she had now. In fact, it was one of the earlier variants of SARS-CoV-2, which had since gone to the wayside in favor of much more virulent variants like the Delta variant. This means that the woman had consistently been infected with an older strain of COVID-19 for a total of 335 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The woman\u2019s truly unique story ended on a particularly happy note, though. She had gone through a second bout of hospitalization and treatment due to the resurgence of the virus that seemingly never left, and several follow-up tests on her since April 2021 returned negative. To Nussenblatt, this confirmed that \u201cthe infection is gone,\u201d ending the woman\u2019s almost year-long bout with COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Nussenblatt\u2019s last video call with her year-long patient, she was \u201cwalking on the beach,\u201d with \u201cno oxygen tube in sight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/h2>\n\n\n\n