Male positive for 305 days in the longest Covid case

A 72-year-old man explained how he became considered the longest Covid-19 patient in the world after being virus-positive for 305 days.

Dave Smith, a retired driving instructor from Bristol, said he was dead and ready to give up his life.

He had Covid-19 for more than 10 months, but experts say he has the longest persistent virus infection ever recorded.

He told the BBC how he coughed, “for five hours in a row, non-stop … if you can imagine the drainage and energy on your body.”

“I often didn’t think he would succeed,” said his wife Linda.

“I called the whole family and settled with them. Now I want to keep my mouth shut.”

Smith said he celebrated the news that he was a covid negative with a bottle of champagne.

He said he was in a state of weakening the immune system and increasing the risk of Covid-19.

He told The Guardian: “Every time I got worse, I got really terrible. Until the door of death. My wife started arranging five funerals.”

He jokingly said: “I called the whole family to make peace with them. I wish I had closed my mouth now.”

He said he lost weight from 117 kg to 64 kg when he was ill because of anorexia, “At one point I was bedridden for a couple of months. My wife couldn’t do me, so I was in bed Had to wash and shave. Stand up.

His case will be submitted to the European Conference on Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in July.

The summary submitted to the meeting explains how Mr Smith’s infection is considered to be “the longest infection recorded in the literature.”

Scholars at the University of Bristol, North Bristol NHS Trust and the UK Public Health Services said Smith was hospitalized in May 2020 for coughing and fever.

PCR tests confirmed that he had Covid-19.

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He was discharged eight days later, but had to be hospitalized further in August, September, October, and December due to “significant shortness of breath and scattered acute exacerbations associated with fever.”

Experts said in December 2020, the daily remdesivir therapy trial was ineffective and was discontinued after 17 days. He was later treated with the monoclonal antibodies Casilibimab and Imdebimab.

According to the University of Bristol, Smith was successfully treated with a laboratory-designed antibody.

He added that his health improved dramatically and no virus was detected by PCR testing 45 days after the combination treatment.

The combination of antibodies by pharmaceutical company Regeneron has since been shown in clinical trials to save the lives of some of the most ill Covid-19 patients, but the treatment has not yet been approved for use in the United Kingdom. ..

Scholars told conference officials that Mr Smith was no longer positive about 305 days after the initial infection.

They said he suspected that the infection was actually longer because he reported symptoms for six weeks before the first test.

“Such cases are rare, but there will be many people across the country in a similar situation.”

Smith had a history of a condition called hypersensitivity pneumonitis. This means that he had lung disease, which causes inflammation of lung tissue, and chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a type of cancer that affects white blood cells and tends to progress slowly over the years.

Dr. Edmoran, a consultant for infectious diseases in the North Bristol NHS Trust and co-author of the treatise, added:

“Such cases are rare, but there will be many people across the country in a similar situation.

“The small number makes it difficult to conduct treatment trials, but finding ways to access and develop treatment plans for these individuals for both personal well-being and public health. It is important.”

Scholars are conducting further research on “persistently infected individuals with immunodeficiency.”

Other researchers have detailed cases that lasted 85 days earlier.