COVID-19 Update / Virus remained for 216 days in HIV positive woman, mutation occurred 32 times

The whole world saw the horrific devastation of Corona virus. Still this dangerous virus is doing shocking feats in many countries. One such case has come to light from South Africa where the corona virus remained inside an HIV positive woman for 216 days and during this time the virus was mutated 30 times.

Business Insider quoted a study published in the medRxiv journal as saying that a 36-year-old HIV-positive woman from South Africa had a virus infection for 216 days. During this, the most surprising thing was that during this period 32 mutations have occurred in the virus.

According to the report, in a conversation with the Los Angeles Times, study author Tulio Di Oliveira has told that if more such cases are found, then it will be feared that HIV infection can be the source of new variants.

It was told that the woman first noticed symptoms, then she was tested and she turned positive. Even after initial treatment, the woman had mild symptoms, but the virus remained inside her. Then there was a mutation 13 times in the spike protein of the virus, most of the vaccines affect the virus only by recognizing this spike protein.

The case of this woman came to know when the woman joined a study conducted on 300 HIV positive people. In such patients, the virus remains for a long time, giving it a chance to mutate. Tulio di Oliveira told that even after treatment, the virus was present inside the woman.

The study also said that four more people had coronavirus for more than a month, but this is a unique case of its kind. There is also a fact that the virus has been seen in people whose immune system is weak, for a long time in the past.

According to the report, this study may prove to be important, especially for Africa where more than 20 million people had HIV in 2020. It has also been told in the report that the World Health Organization has warned on the increasing cases that the danger of a third wave is visible here.

Such cases fall under the category of 'Long Kovid'. In fact, long-term exposure to the corona virus in patients, which is being called 'long covid', is defined broadly as a symptom that is lasting more than four weeks. In this, the symptoms of corona may be in the direction of increasing, it may happen that symptoms may come back or symptoms which were not there before.