British doctors heal man (59) after corona infection of no less than 411 days Abroad

A persistent corona infection is different from prolonged Covid-19 or regular flare-ups of the disease. The phenomenon occurs in a small number of patients with a weakened immune system. Such patients continue to test positive for months or even years. Little is known about the disease. What can be said with certainty is that patients suffer from many persistent symptoms, including pneumonia.

The British patient first tested positive for the coronavirus in December 2020, shortly after undergoing a kidney transplant. The medication the man had to take to prevent his body from rejecting the kidney weakened his immune system. The 59-year-old Briton continued to test positive until January 2022, although he has been vaccinated three times.

Doctors at King’s College University Hospital in London conducted a genetic analysis of the virus. It turned out that the patient had contracted the original corona variant that was first discovered in the Chinese city of Wuhan. The virus that made the man sick also underwent several mutations.

With this knowledge, the doctors developed an adapted treatment for the man. The team administered two antiviral treatments that had never been used together: Paxlovid and remdesivir. About two months later, after a corona infection of no less than 411 days, the man finally felt better. “We feared he was going to die,” said lead researcher Luke Snell. “But miraculously, he healed. This may well be the way we can now treat these ongoing infections.”

The longest corona infection on record so far lasted a total of 505 days. The patient, a 60-year-old man, did not survive the disease.