Patient had COVID-19 for more than 500 days
The case appears to be the longest reported infection of the pandemic, says UK infectious diseases expert Dr Luke Blagdon Snell
A patient with a severely weakened immune system had COVID-19 for almost a year and a half, according to UK clinicians investigating a link between prolonged infection and new variants.
At 505 days, “it certainly seems to be the longest reported infection”, said Dr Luke Blagdon Snell, an infectious diseases expert at the Guy’s & St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.
The case is one of several ‘persistent’ COVID-19 cases Dr Snell and his team plan to present at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Lisbon, Portugal from 23-26 April.
Their study investigated which mutations arise — and whether variants evolve — in people with very long infections.
