UK doctors believe they have documented the longest Covid infection on record – a patient they treated who had detectable levels of the virus for more than 16 months, or 505 days, in total.
The unnamed individual had other underlying medical conditions and sadly died in hospital in 2021.
Persistent infections such as this are still rare, say the London medics.
Most people naturally clear the virus, but the patient in question had a severely weakened immune system.
Chronic infections like these need studying to improve our understanding of Covid and the risks it can pose, say experts.
