The strange case of the man tested positive 43 times since the start of the coronavirus pandemic

From the start of the pandemic, several have been known strange cases of disease. Following long covid (or extended covid) were responsible – as were some of the variants of SARS-CoV-2- from unusual life stories. The David smith now joins this long list. The 72-year-old British driving instructor revealed in an interview with the BBC What tested positive 43 times since he contracted the disease.

“I counted them. They were 43 times that I tested positive PCR tests», He confessed to the astonishment of the journalists. What happened in his case is that the man – who contracted the disease in March 2020, in the midst of the first wave of the pandemic – had pre-existing health problems: Prior to becoming infected with SARS-CoV-2, Smith was diagnosed with leukemia and underwent treatment with chemotherapy to success.

// A hospital in La Plata has not been hospitalized for coronavirus for 24 hours for the first time since the start of the pandemic

However, and being patient at risk, the virus has been active in your body for 290 days, when the average in most people is no more than two weeks. “I prayed all the time asking that the next (PCR test) be negative, but it never was, ”revealed the Englishman.

In his case, and as his doctors explained, it was not a covid reinfection but of a persistent infection. For more than ten consecutive months, Smith has been gravely ill with the coronavirus, to the point that should have been hospitalized seven times.

According to the man, could barely move and needed help with almost all activities of daily living. “It was agony. At one point, I coughed for five hours without stopping, from five in the afternoon to ten in the evening. You cannot imagine the exhaustion that this generates in your body ”, he underlined in the Bcc after saying that lost 60 kilos during illness.

From what has been reported by specialists, Smith is one of the cases of active covid infection the longest ever recorded in the world. This is very rare because the virus usually does not stay active in the body for more than two weeks. However, this can happen in some immunocompromised patients.

Andrew Davidson, professor of virology at the School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Bristol and a member of the medical team that investigated the case, told the BBC: “Normally, the Immune system gets rid of the virus by producing antibodies that attach to it, thus preventing it from infecting cells, but also with T lymphocytes, which destroy cells infected with the virus and other mechanisms ”. But he clarified that since Smith’s immune system was weakened by cancer and chemotherapy, his defenses couldn’t fight it.

// “The risk is minimal”: two specialists reassure themselves about the Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccines and Guillain-Barré syndrome

In addition, Davidson He added that other viruses – besides covid – can stay in the body permanently. In this regard, he commented: “Some viruses cause a persistent infection and once you get infected it is very unlikely to get rid of it. One of them is the HIV virus, which remains in the body in a latent state. Can be treated antiviral that remove the virus, but do not eliminate it ”. In turn, the specialist explained that one thing is the long term covid and another, persistent covid infection: “In the first, certain symptoms such as tiredness or shortness of breath they survive despite the fact that the virus has already been eliminated, while in the second, the virus is present and active ”, he differentiated.

// Vaccination with empty syringes: what to do to avoid irregularities

How did you overcome the disease?

Smith succeeded, after 290 days of suffering, in overcoming the disease thanks to a antiviral cocktail containing two monoclonal antibodies (casirivimab and imdevimab). His doctors revealed that the treatment the man received was the same as that of the former President of the United States, Donald Trump.

After 45 days of uninterrupted treatment, and for the first time since infection, the test PCR Smith gave a negative result. “It was like having a new life. He was ready to leave the fight. I had already spoken with my wife Lyn to put things in order. I didn’t think I would survive, “he confessed. Finally, the medical team revealed that the drugs provided were the ones that ultimately enabled the man to overcome the disease.