An immunocompromised man in the UK was infected with the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus for 411 days. The patient was only cured after treatment with neutralizing antibodies, as reported by the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. Accordingly, the now 59-year-old patient was infected with the early corona variant that first appeared in Wuhan, China.

The man had a weakened immune system due to a kidney transplant. He received an antibody combination known as Regeneron, which was also given to then-US President Donald Trump in 2020. The genetic analysis of the virus was important in the treatment of the man.

According to the experts, there is no effective antibody treatment in Great Britain or the European Union for the currently dominant corona variant Omicron. "Some people with compromised immune systems remain at risk of serious illness and ongoing infection," said Luke Blagdon Snell, a doctor at King's College London, who recently published his findings in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

The patient, who has since healed, is one of the people with one of the longest known corona infections. A patient also treated at Guy's and St Thomas' hospital had been infected for 505 days before his death.