The 59-year-old patient was infected with an early strain of the virus and was unable to recover due to a compromised immune system caused by a kidney transplant.
It is believed that a British man who had COVID for 411 days and survived had the virus longer than anyone else in the world.
The patient, whose immune system is compromised after a kidney transplant, tested positive for the first time in December 2020.
Despite the disappearance of his symptoms, he remained HIV-positive until January 2022.
Doctors at London’s Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Hospitals say they are unaware of any previous case where a patient was cured after such a lengthy infection.
Using genetic analysis, they determined that the unidentified 59-year-old still possessed an early variation of the original Wuhan strain, which had long since been supplanted by Alpha, Delta, and Omicron.
After identifying the variation, they were able to treat him with Regeneron, the same medicine combo that helped Donald Trump combat the disease.
A patient with an underlying health issue who died after testing positive for 505 days was also treated by the same group.
In both instances, genetic testing revealed that the patients were not infected again.
Cases of chronic infection differ from cases of protracted COVID, in which a patient may exhibit symptoms for months or longer yet test negative.
The team treating the cases has urged for greater study into antibody therapy for persistent COVID cases, and activists have demanded the release of a new medicine, Evusheld, in the United Kingdom and Europe.
Dr. Luke Blagdon Snell stated, “Some novel viral variations are resistant to all existing antibody treatments in the United Kingdom and Europe.
Some individuals with compromised immune systems are nonetheless susceptible to serious sickness and prolonged infection. We are still attempting to determine the optimal means of protecting and treating them.”
The findings of the researchers are published in Clinical Infectious Diseases.
