Coronavirus has been wreaking havoc all over the world since 2020. The virus has mutated and several new coronavirus variants are becoming a cause of concern in various countries. The newCovid variants have created an atmosphere of fear and people are panicking more than ever.
Amid these unprecedented times, a shocking incident has emerged in which an HIV-positive woman was found to be corona infected for over seven months. While she was infected for over 216days, coronavirus mutated 32 times inside her body.
A case report was published on the incident discovered in South Africa in an unnamed 36-year-old woman. According to a study, the spike protein of the virus also mutated 13 times. Thesespike proteins help the virus escape the immune response.
Another 19 mutations occurred that could change the behaviour of the virus.
Tulio de Oliveira, a geneticist at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban and the author of the study said that coronavirus can stay in a patient's body for a long time and this givesthe virus a chance to mutate. “Perhaps no one understood this case because the woman had fewer symptoms after the initial treatment.”
The case was discovered after the 36-year-old woman participated in a study of 300 HIV-positive people. The study also revealed that there were four other people who had Covid19 in theirbodies for more than a month.
"If more such cases are found, it raises a new prospect that HIV infection could be a source of new variants because the patients could carry the virus for a longer period of time,”the author said.
So far, it is not clear whether the mutations carried by the woman were passed on to others.