Coronavirus update: Asymptomatic cancer patient was contagious for 70 days

The second national lockdown began at midnight on Thursday, November 5, and is set to end on December 2. Yet, a person could be shedding the virus for as long as 70 days – more than double the amount of time people in the UK will shield for.

Suffering from leukaemia – cancer of white blood cells – the immunosuppressed woman was hospitalised due to cancer-related anaemia.

There, the 71-year-old tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (the coronavirus), which was present in her upper respiratory tract.

However, she didn’t show any of signs of a coronavirus infection, aside from the positive test result.

She didn’t have a new, continuous cough, high temperature or a loss or change to her sense of taste or smell.

This meant the American lady was asymptomatic (she didn’t show signs of infection), but she could still be contagious.

Healthcare professionals at the Life Care Centre rehabilitation facility in Kirkland, Washington, continued to test the patient for the next 15 weeks.

The virus was detected in the patient’s body for 105 days; and the infectious particles were identified for at least 70 days.

READ MORE: Coronavirus symptoms – gastrointestinal signs occur in 20% of patients

Interestingly, even though the woman still had low concentrations of antibodies after the transfusion, her coronavirus infection cleared following the second round of treatment.

A virologist, Vincent Munster, published a research paper on Wednesday, November 4 in the journal Cell.

Mr Munster said: “Long-term shedding of infectious virus may be a concern in certain immunocompromised patients.

“As this virus continues to spread, more people with a range of immunosuppressing disorders will become infected.

“It’s important to understand how SARS-CoV-2 behaves in these populations.”

In an email to LiveScience Mr Munster added his thoughts about the immunosuppressed American woman who was contagious for 70 days.

“You would indeed think that the immunocompromised status would allow the virus to spread from the upper to the lower respiratory tract,” he said.

“Even though the patient was at least infected for 105 days, this clearly didn’t happen, and this remains a mystery to us.”

It must be noted that this is a singular case, thus the findings do not represent everybody with a compromised immune system.

“Understanding the mechanism of virus persistence and eventual clearance will be essential to providing appropriate treatment,” concluded Mr Munster.

A more in-depth understanding will also help to prevent the “transmission of SARS-CoV-2”.

After lockdown lifts, the best form of protection against asymptomatic people is excellent hand hygiene and wearing face masks.

source: express.co.uk