American scientists have named the most infectious group of patients with COVID-19. In particular, people with a weakened immune system, for example, suffering from cancer, who have contracted the coronavirus, can be infectious for two months. This is stated in an open letter from researchers published in the New England Journal of Medicin.
Experts investigated the isolation of a live virus from cancer patients. As it turned out, patients with weakened immunity after treatment procedures can get rid of viable SARS-CoV-2 for at least two months, the scientists concluded. According to the current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID-19 precautionary guidelines, people with COVID-19 are contagious for ten days. Therefore, the researchers summed up, the norms regarding patients with weakened immune systems should be revised.
In addition, people with HIV infection and immunodeficiencies have abnormalities in the functioning of the immune system, said Albert Rizvanov, director of the Scientific Clinical Center for Precision and Regenerative Medicine, in an interview with Izvestia. He also suggested that the coronavirus may linger longer in the body of a person who has undergone severe stress. The specialist believes that the study of American scientists makes it necessary to revise the rules for the work of doctors with such patients.
Earlier, scientists from Yale University have identified a feature of immunity that complicates the course of COVID-19. A large number of “wrong” antibodies (autoantibodies) in the blood target organs, tissues, and the immune system itself, rather than fighting an invading virus. This not only provokes complications when infected with coronavirus, but also causes a long course of the disease. The study found that the more autoantibodies in the patients' blood, the harder they tolerated COVID-19.
