![]() Who exactly develops these infections remains mysterious. “I am pretty well convinced that people with persistent infection are important sources of new variants,” Friedrich says. Together, the studies lay out how such infections could potentially drive the emergence of the next omicron. In that work, researchers documented the evolution of the virus over 12 weeks and showed that its descendant infected at least five other people. The study supports an earlier finding about a different immunocompromised patient - one with a persistent omicron infection. Sign up for e-mail updates on the latest coronavirus news and research ![]() Grubaugh’s work is “probably the most detailed look we’ve had at a single, persistent infection with SARS-CoV-2 so far,” says Tom Friedrich, a virologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, who was not involved with the work. But the work does suggest that persistent viral infections can provide a playground for speedy evolutionary experimentation - perhaps taking advantage of weakened immune systems. After all, lots of prolonged infections have likely occurred during the pandemic, and only a handful of concerning variants have emerged. ![]() “Honestly, if any one of these were to emerge in a population and begin transmitting, we would be calling it a new variant,” Grubaugh says. Over about 15 months, at least three genetically distinct versions of the virus had rapidly evolved inside the patient, the team’s analyses suggested.Įach version had dozens of mutations and seemed to coexist in the patient’s body. Because of deteriorating health and a desire to maintain their anonymity, the patient was not willing to be interviewed, and Grubaugh has no direct contact with them.īut all those samples collected over all those days told an incredible tale of viral evolution. Ultimately, the patient has remained infected for 471 days (and counting), Grubaugh, Yale postdoctoral researcher Chrispin Chaguza and their team reported last month in a preliminary study posted at. □for our latest preprint on the intrahost evolution of SARS-CoV-2 virus in an immunocompromised individual (60s) with a history of cancer chronically infected for at least 471 days (ongoing) with consistently replicating viruses at a high viral load. After seeing B.1.517 show up again and again in their samples, Grubaugh worked with a clinician to get the patient’s permission to analyze their data. That was right around when they first tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. That patient, a person in their 60s with a history of cancer, relapsed in November of 2020. The code on the B.1.517 samples was always the same, Grubaugh’s team noticed. The same lineage, every few weeks, like clockwork, for months. Even after B.1.517 had petered out across the country, his team noticed it cropping up in patient samples. ![]() “And yet we were still seeing it,” Grubaugh says. ![]() But after April 2021, B.1.517 seemed to sputter, one of the who-knows-how-many viral lineages that flare up and then eventually fizzle.ī.1.517 might have been long forgotten, shouldered aside by the latest variant to stake a claim in local communities. Instead, after springing up somewhere in North America in early 2020, B.1.517 tooled around in a handful of regions around the world, even sparking an outbreak in Australia. Known only as B.1.517, this version of the virus never got a name like delta or omicron, nor rampaged through communities quite like its infamous relatives. His team had been analyzing coronavirus strains in patient samples from Yale New Haven Hospital when Grubaugh spotted something he had seen before. That lengthy infection first came onto epidemiologist Nathan Grubaugh’s radar in the summer of 2021. ![]()
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