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Dozens of COVID Virus Mutations Arose in Man With Longest Known Case – HealthDay

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FRIDAY, April 19, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- An immune-compromised man with a year-and-a-half-long COVID infection served as a breeding ground for dozens of coronavirus mutations, a new study discovered.

Worse, several of the mutations were in the COVID spike protein, indicating that the virus had attempted to evolve around current vaccines, researchers report.

This case underscores the risk of persistent SARS-CoV-2 infections in immunocompromised individuals, as unique SARS-CoV-2 viral variants may emerge, said the research team led by Magda Vergouwe. She's a doctoral candidate with Amsterdam University Medical Center in The Netherlands.

The patient in questioned endured the longest known COVID infection to date, fighting with the virus for 613 days before dying from the blood disease that had compromised his immune system, researchers said.

Immune-compromised patients who suffer persistent infections give the COVID virus an opportunity to adapt and evolve, the investigators explained.

For instance, the Omicron variant is thought to have emerged in an immune-compromised patient initially infected with an earlier form of COVID, researchers said.

In this latest report, the man was admitted to Amsterdam University Medical Center in February 2022 with a COVID infection at age 72, after hed already received multiple vaccinations.

He suffered from myelodysplastic and myeloproliferative overlap syndrome, a disease in which the bone marrow makes too many white blood cells, according to the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

Following a stem cell transplant, the man also had developed lymphoma, a cancer of the white blood cells, researchers said.

A drug he took for lymphoma, rituximab, depleted all the immune cells that normally produce antibodies for COVID, they added.

To clear his COVID, the man received a monoclonal antibody cocktail that ultimately proved ineffective.

In fact, gene sequencing showed that the coronavirus started mutating to evade the antibodies hed received, a step that could have potentially undermined the effectiveness of the treatment in others, researchers said.

Gene sequencing of 27 nasal specimens taken from the man revealed more than 50 mutations in the COVID virus, including variants with changes in the spike protein targeted by vaccines.

The prolonged infection has led to the emergence of a novel immune-evasive variant due to the extensive within-host evolution, researchers said.

Such cases pose a potential public health threat of possibly introducing viral escape variants into the community, they added.

However, they noted that there had been no documented transmission of any COVID variants from the man into other people.

The researchers will present their findings at the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases meeting next week in Barcelona. Findings presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about COVID.

SOURCE: European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, news release, April 19, 2024

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Dozens of COVID Virus Mutations Arose in Man With Longest Known Case - HealthDay

NATIONAL VIEW: Measles is more contagious than the coronavirus, and it’s back – Odessa American

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This year is not yet one-third over, yet measles cases in the United States are on track to be the worst since a massive outbreak in 2019. At the same time, anti-vaccine activists are recklessly sowing doubts and encouraging vaccine hesitancy. Parents who leave their children unvaccinated are risking not only their health but also the well-being of those around them.

Measles is one of the most contagious human viruses more so than the coronavirus and is spread through direct or airborne contact when an infected person breathes, coughs or sneezes. The virus can hang in the air for up to two hours after an infected person has left an area. It can cause serious complications, including pneumonia, encephalitis and death, especially in unvaccinated people. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one person infected with measles can infect 9 out of 10 unvaccinated individuals with whom they come in close contact.

But measles can be prevented with the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine; two doses are 97 percent effective. When 95 percent or more of a community is vaccinated, herd immunity protects the whole. Unfortunately, vaccination rates are falling. The global vaccine coverage rate of the first dose, at 83 percent, and second dose, at 74 percent, are well under the 95 percent level. Vaccination coverage among U.S. kindergartners has slipped from 95.2 percent during the 2019-2020 school year to 93.1 percent in the 2022-2023 school year, according to the CDC, leaving approximately 250,000 kindergartners at risk each year over the past three years.

The virus is slipping through the gaps. According to the World Health Organization, in 2022, 37 countries experienced large or disruptive measles outbreaks compared with 22 countries in 2021. In the United States, there have been seven outbreaks so far this year, with 121 cases in 18 jurisdictions. Most are children. Many of the outbreaks in the United States appear to have been triggered by international travel or contact with a traveler. Disturbingly, 82 percent of those infected were unvaccinated or their status unknown.

The largest toll has been in Illinois, followed by Florida. But when an outbreak hit the Manatee Bay Elementary School in Broward County in early March, Floridas top public health official, state Surgeon General Joseph A. Ladapo, did not follow the standard recommendation that parents of unvaccinated children keep them home for 21 days to avoid getting the disease. Instead, Dr. Ladapo said, Florida would be deferring to parents or guardians to make decisions about school attendance. This means allowing children without protection to go to school. Dr. Ladapos letter was an unnecessarily reckless act of pandering to an anti-vaccine movement with increasing political influence.

Vaccine hesitancy is being encouraged by activists who warn of government coercion, using social media to amplify irresponsible claims. An article published March 20 on the website of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.s Childrens Health Defense organization is headlined, Be Very Afraid? CDC, Big Media Drum Up Fear of Deadly Measles Outbreaks. The author, Alan Cassels, claims that the news media is advancing a a fear-mongering narrative, and adds, Those of us born before 1970 with personal experience pretty much all agree that measles is a big meh. We all had it ourselves and so did our brothers, sisters and school friends. We also had chicken pox and mumps and typically got a few days off school. The only side effect of those diseases was that my mom sighed heavily and called work to say she had to stay home to look after a kid with spots.

Today, he adds, Big media and government overhyping the nature of an illness, which history has shown us can be a precursor to some very bad public health policies such as mandatory vaccination programs and other coercive measures.

This is just wrong. The CDC reports that, in the decade before the measles vaccine became available in 1963, the disease killed 400 to 500 people, hospitalized 48,000 and gave 1,000 people encephalitis in the United States every year and that was just among reported cases.

The elimination of measles in the United States in 2000, driven by a safe and effective vaccine, was a major public health success. Although the elimination status still holds, the U.S. situation has deteriorated. The nation has been below 95 percent two-dose coverage for three consecutive years, and 12 states and the District below 90 percent. At the same time, the rest of the world must also strive to boost childhood vaccination rates, which slid backward during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the WHO, low-income countries with the highest risk of death from measles continue to have the lowest vaccination rates, only 66 percent.

The battle against measles requires a big not a meh effort.

The Washington Post

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NATIONAL VIEW: Measles is more contagious than the coronavirus, and it's back - Odessa American

COVID, RSV and Flu cases on the rise in Berks County – 69News WFMZ-TV

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READING, Pa. - Respiratory illness numbers are going up across the country following holiday gatherings.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as of this past week, flu activity is high in Pennsylvania, and very high in New Jersey.

In our very own region, "We are seeing more cases of respiratory illnesses." says Dr. Debra Powell, chief of infectious diseases at Tower Health, "Be aware that most of our hospitals are close to capacity a number of days we have been over capacity and have had to open up additional beds for patients."

Many of those beds are filled with patients needing care for Covid, RSV and the flu. "We are primarily seeing the high-risk age groups which are those people of older ages and also people with chronic medical conditions like diabetes, lung diseases, heart diseases." says Dr. Powell.

Dr. Debra Powell of Tower Health says the rise in cases is expected. "I think we're seeing about the same number we saw this time last year maybe about an extra 10 patients." says Dr. Powell, well below numbers from 2 or 3 years ago, but she still urges people to do their best to avoid getting sick.

"Be up to date on your vaccine, if you're sick please stay home, call your primary care physician if you need additional testing or treatment." says Dr. Powell.

Dr. Powell recommends getting the new omicron covid vaccine released in September as well as your flu shot.

The good news is, "What we're seeing with RSV is those numbers have come down it has plateaued." says Dr. Powell.

How long will the spike last? "We will see flu probably till after the spring hopefully it'll peak and then start to tamper down." says Dr. Powell, "We don't know what happens with covid, it depends on the strains that are circulating."

Her prediction is that it'll peak by mid-January and go down, but time will tell the doctor says.

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COVID, RSV and Flu cases on the rise in Berks County - 69News WFMZ-TV