COVID patient dies after record 17 mos.

A British patient has died after the longest COVID-19 infection on record — regularly testing positive for a staggering 505 days.

The unidentified patient, who had a weakened immune system, died after suffering “one continuous infection” that lasted nearly 17 months, according to Dr. Luke Blagdon Snell of Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.

COVID throat-swab tests were administered on the person about 50 times during that period and “were positive each time — the patient never had a negative test,” Snell told the BBC, as per The Times of London.

“And we can tell it was one continuous infection because the genetic signature of it, the information we got from sequencing the viral genome, was unique and constant in that patient,” the doctor said.

Snell told the BBC that “at 505 days, it certainly seems to be the longest reported infection.”

He conceded “there’s no way to know for sure” because “not everyone gets tested, especially on a regular basis, like this case.”

The patient tested positive for COVID-19 in early 2020, was treated with the antiviral drug Remdesivir and died at a hospital sometime in 2021.

Rare infection

Researchers did not cite an official cause of death because the person had several other illnesses.

The patient was one of two people in a London study that had infections lasting more than a year, the UK Times said. Another has tested positive for 412 days, the report said.

The nine overall subjects in the study all had weakened immune systems from organ transplantation, HIV, cancer or medical therapies. Their infections averaged 72 days, the report said.

Five of the patients survived, with two beating the bug without treatment and two clearing it with the help of medicine. One still has COVID-19.

The study centered on patients who had tested positive for at least eight consecutive weeks and investigated whether mutations arose and variants evolved.

When researchers tested patients, they analyzed the virus’ genetic code to make sure the subjects hadn’t gotten the bug more than once. Genetic sequencing showed that the virus changed over time, mutating as it adapted.

The mutations were similar to ones that showed up later in widespread variants, Snell said. But none of the patients spawned new mutants that became variants of concern.

Persistent COVID-19 is rare and different from long COVID, according to Snell.

“In long COVID, it’s generally assumed the virus has been cleared from your body but the symptoms persist,” Snell said. “With persistent infection, it represents ongoing, active replication of the virus.”

We can tell it was one continuous infection because the genetic signature . . . was unique and constant in that patient.

— Dr. Luke Blagdon Snell