HIV+ woman carried COVID-19 for 216 days, virus mutated 30 times: Study

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has witnessed a number of mutations and now a new study has revealed that a woman with advanced HIV carried the virus for 216 days and accumulated more than 30 mutations. Published on Thursday, the report referred to a 36-year-old woman from South Africa. As per the study, the woman had COVID-19 for over half a year and was host to numerous mutations, including 13 in the spike protein which is responsible for the virus evading one’s immune response, and 19 others, which could change its behaviour. 

An excerpt from the study read, “While most people effectively clear Sars-CoV-2, there are several reports of prolonged infection in immunosuppressed individuals. We present a case of prolonged infection of greater than 6 months with the shedding of high titter SARS-CoV-2 in an individual with advanced HIV and antiretroviral treatment failure”. 

It added, “Through whole-genome sequencing at multiple time-points, we demonstrate the early emergence of the E484K substitution associated with escape from neutralizing antibodies, followed by other escape mutations and the N501Y substitution found in most variants of concern”. 

Yet to find if mutations were transmissible 

The study sheds light on how erratic COVID-19 could become in hosts that have other long-term ailments which diminish the immune system’s ability to fight the virus. The study added that the mutations reported in the woman were not a result of the treatments being offered to her to fight coronavirus. It said this provides support to the hypothesis of intra-host evolution as one mechanism for the emergence of Sars-CoV-2 variants with immune evasion properties. However, it also added that the experts are yet to find of the mutations that the woman was carrying were transmissible.

The study noted that a person carrying HIV is 2.75 times more likely to die when infected with the coronavirus than someone with no co-morbidities, because of the immunity issue. But the woman in the case study was immunosuppressed. It said that still, the impact HIV had on mortality was less than expected and well below that of other co-morbidities such as diabetes, although it was higher than tuberculosis, an analysis of the South African data done by Western Cape Department of Health last year showed. It also noted that about 7.8 million people in South Africa are infected with HIV, which causes AIDS, while about 300,000 have TB. Although travelling is not recommended other than the work purpose, one should download the covid vaccination certificate as its important for smooth travelling procedures and keep it in mind that there's a ban for travelling in certain countries if not vaccinated yet.

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