an asymptomatic woman who was contagious for 70 days

70 days. This is the longest duration of SARS-CoV-2 infection recorded to date. The affected patient would have developed an asymptomatic form of the disease. Scientists of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (United States) which followed the case of this woman describe their work in the magazine Cell.

The patient in question was diagnosed positive for Covid-19 in March 2020. Aged 71, the latter had also suffered from white blood cell cancer for ten years. Followed by the doctors, the patient underwent numerous PCR tests, as well as throat swabs.

In total, more than a dozen positive diagnostic tests have been reported, meaning the woman has retained SARS-CoV-2 particles in her body for several months. The seventy-year-old also benefited from the treatment process consisting in using the plasma of patients recovered from Covid-19, in order to bring antibodies to the sick. The virus finally disappeared from his body last June.

Better evaluate the risks in immunocompromised patients

This woman’s case could be linked to her cancer and immunosuppressive treatments, which weaken the immune system. These data are all the more worrying as so-called “immunocompromised” patients go far beyond the specific case of cancer and apply to drug treatments other than chemotherapy, as well as to infections such as HIV.

After a laboratory test on the viral particles from the patient’s body, the scientists were able to see that these pieces of the virus were able to replicate and contaminate other human organisms. In other words, the patient remained contagious for as long as her body showed traces of Covid-19.

“Understanding the mechanism of virus persistence and eventual elimination will be critical to providing appropriate treatment and preventing transmission of SARS-CoV-2, as persistent infections and prolonged spread of SARS-CoV-2 occur. most frequently”, warn the authors of the study, stressing the need for further research in this direction.