00:03The COVID pandemic may be long behind us, but the illness is still around and likely
00:08always will be. Now a new case study has come out regarding a man who had the longest known
00:13case of the virus ever and is providing some interesting and troubling insights into the
00:18deadly disease. The man in question was a 72-year-old immunocompromised individual who
00:23had the virus for an incredible 613 days. Despite treatments including multiple vaccinations,
00:29his immune system remained unable to fight off the illness. He eventually succumbed to COVID and died
00:34after 20 months of infection. But during that time, doctors were able to constantly take tests,
00:39finding some unusual things. While the virus is known to mutate while inside a host,
00:43in this case, it mutated 50 times. One such mutation was the deletion of an end of the SARS-CoV
00:49-2 spike
00:50protein, which experts say indicates it could have escaped the immune system. With the researchers
00:55writing as part of the study, quote, this case underscores the risk of persistent SARS-CoV-2
01:00infections in immunocompromised individuals. As unique SARS-CoV-2 viral variants may emerge due
01:06to extensive intra-host evolution, they added that they don't believe any of the man's highly
01:11mutated variants were able to jump to another person or animal.
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