An HIV-positive 36-year-old woman in South Africa, who had contracted COVID-19, carried the virus for as many as 216 days. Further, the SARS-CoV-2 virus mutated 32 times inside the woman's body during this period.
As per the study, 13 mutations happened in the coronavirus's spike protein which helps the virus beat the human body's immune response, while the remaining 19 mutations were linked to the behaviour of the contagion.
It was immediately not clear whether the woman passed on the virus to anyone else.
Scientists are suspecting that if this behaviour of the virus is established in other patients as well, then it could be possible that HIV infection is creating more variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
The study also suggests that immunosuppressed people are likely to host the coronavirus longer than usual.
