Patient with 50 COVID mutations dies in the Netherlands

The longest case of covid disease was discovered in Amsterdam; an elderly man had it for a year and a half; the infection mutated dozens of times. Treatment was complicated by bone marrow disease and leukemia

A Dutch pensioner died after 613 days of COVID illness, the virus mutated in his body about 50 times, Bild reports.

He became infected with the Omicron strain in February 2022 and was treated at the University Medical Center Amsterdam. Before hospitalization, the man was vaccinated against the infection several times, but antibodies were not developed. They tried to treat him with the drug Sotrovimab, but the virus developed a resistance mutation in just three weeks, quickly adapting to the active ingredient to fight it.

The man had a bone marrow disease that affected his red blood cells and stem cells, and later developed leukemia. For effective treatment, the pensioner had to take immunosuppressants that suppress the immune system, since his body could not fight the CORONAVIRUS with natural antibodies.

The patient died in the fall of 2023. Scientists who studied this case called it the longest-lasting coronavirus disease in the world. According to them, this patient's mutated virus was not infectious.

In 2022, scientists reported the death of a British patient who had tested positive for coronavirus for 505 days . He suffered from immunodeficiency and was involved in research to find out how the virus mutates in people with chronic diseases.