Man Dies After Having COVID for 613 Days

The 72-year-old patient, who had a blood disorder, first contracted a variant of the virus in February 2022 — and it had over 50 mutations

After a record 613 days of being infected with a variant of COVID-19, a Dutch man has died at the age of 72.

According to TIME, the unidentified patient, who had a blood disorder, was unable to develop a strong immunity to the virus after getting "multiple COVID shots before catching the Omicron variant in February 2022."

Per a report from researchers for the Centre for Experimental and Molecular Medicine (CEMM) at the Amsterdam University Medical Center (Amsterdam UMC) in the Netherlands released on April 18, the man had "the longest SARS-CoV-2 [COVID-19] infection duration to date, although several cases of hundreds of days have been previously recorded."

During that time, his infection led "to a highly mutated novel variant," the researchers said, with TIME reporting that "it later acquired over 50 mutations."

Related: Boy, 12, Struggles with Long Covid for 4 Years, Says It’s ‘Worse Than Actual Covid’ 

While the researchers noted in their report that "infected patients can clear the virus within a period of days to weeks, an immunocompromised individual [such as this patient] can develop a persistent infection with prolonged viral replication and evolution."

Because of his history of treatment for myelodysplastic syndrome — a disorder "caused by blood cells that are poorly formed or don't work properly," per the Mayo Clinic  — and myeloproliferative overlap syndrome, which is "malignant disease" in the blood, the patient was immunocompromised.

As a result, TIME reported that "the coronavirus developed resistance to sotrovimab, a Covid antibody treatment." In their report, the researchers said that there was no "clinical response" to the treatment that was administered by doctors.

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"In the end, the patient died from a relapse of his haematological condition," researchers said, referring to his blood disorder.

Despite having COVID-19 "with high viral loads for a total of 613 days," there was "no documented transmission" to other members of the community, per the report.

However, “this case underscores the risk of persistent SARS-CoV-2 infections in immunocompromised individuals as unique SARS-CoV-2 viral variants may emerge due to extensive intra-host evolution," the researchers said.

They also put an added emphasis on "the importance" of continued studies of "immunocompromised individuals with persistent infections given the potential public health threat of possibly introducing viral escape variants into the community."

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Read the original article on People.