Despite the end of the most critical phase of the pandemic a long time ago, many people are still afraid of Covid-19. And no wonder: there were more than 5 million deaths worldwide, a number considered underreported by some experts.
Another aspect of the disease that has generated a lot of fear in society is the so-called long Covid, that is, people who have had some symptoms for several weeks or months.
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Scientists from all locations continue to study this and other forms of Covid, the coronavirus itself and the new and old variants.
A group in the United States, more specifically at the University of California, appears to have found an explanation for these persistent cases.
In an article in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases, researchers showed that, after infection with SARS-COV-2, some coronavirus viral particles were found in the blood of some people up to 14 months after recovery.
Details about the study
- The team obtained frozen plasma samples from 171 adults who were recruited for another study in 2020.
- The vast majority were people who caught the disease at the beginning of the pandemic.
- Scientists compared these samples with plasma from 250 people collected before 2020, that is, before we knew about the existence of Covid.
- The detection platform looked for signs of three SARS-CoV-2 antigens: the S1 surface protein, the nucleocapsid protein, and the spike protein.
- In total, they tested 660 samples from the pandemic group, covering periods of 3-6 months, 6-10 months and 10-14 months after the original Covid-19 infections.
- According to the researchers, 42 people (25% of those recruited) had viral particles in at least one of the samples.
- In extreme cases, this recurrence lasted 14 months and the most common viral particle was the spike protein.
- Scientists also discovered that if the infection was severe (hospitalization, for example), the patient’s chances of having these resistant viral particles in their blood are greater.
Study limitations
The researchers themselves highlighted some flaws in the study. The main one is that the samples are from 2020, when there were no vaccines yet.
In other words, today, as the majority of the population has defenses against the virus, the disease may behave differently.
Another point is that the research does not exactly link these resistant particles to long Covid. The report presents a hypothesis, not a proof.
A third asterisk refers to the period studied. As samples were collected in 3 different phases, it is possible that the patient was reinfected along the way. In this case, we would not be talking about resistant particles, but rather new viral particles.
Regardless, American scientists claim that the evidence found is solid and that the particles could still be there 14 months later. To clarify the gray areas, the researchers are now calling for new, complementary studies to be carried out.
The information is from IFL Science.
