A 36-year-old woman with advanced HIV carried the novel coronavirus for 216 days, during which the virus accumulated more than 30 mutations, a new stu

A woman with HIV had the coronavirus for 216 days. The virus mutated at least 30 times inside her.

submited by
Style Pass
2021-06-05 23:00:05

A 36-year-old woman with advanced HIV carried the novel coronavirus for 216 days, during which the virus accumulated more than 30 mutations, a new study has found.

The coronaviruses gathered 13 mutations to the spike protein, which is known to help the virus escape the immune response, and 19 other mutations that could change the behavior of the virus.

If more such cases are found, it raises the prospect that HIV infection could be a source of new variants simply because the patients could carry the virus for longer, Tulio de Oliveira, a geneticist at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban and the study's author, told the LA Times.

But it is probably the exception rather than the rule for people living with HIV, because prolonged infection requires severe immunocompromise, Dr. Juan Ambrosini, an associate professor of infectious diseases at the University of Barcelona, told Insider. Indeed, the woman in the case study was immunosuppressed.

The findings are important for the control of COVID-19 because these patients could be a continuous source of transmission and evolution of the virus, Ambrosini said.

Leave a Comment