Virologists assessed the ability of COVID to remain in the body for more than a year

The CORONAVIRUS can remain in the human body for more than a year, but doctors rarely record such cases, Alexander Chepurnov, professor of virology, HEAD of the laboratory for especially dangerous infections at the Federal Research Center for Fundamental and Translational Medicine (FRC FTM), told RBC.

According to the expert, such cases have already been recorded if a person has an oncological disease or immunological deficiencies. “There is an interesting phenomenon: in some people, antibodies disappear quickly, while in others for a long time, a year or more. This suggests that somewhere there is persistence (the state of a long stay of a virus in a cell.) of viruses, in some tissues, cells, which does not manifest itself outwardly, but the focus is maintained, ”Chepurnov admitted.

In his opinion, the “hot” of the virus can provoke the immune system to fight the antigen and stimulate the production of B-cells, such a virus is able to “live” in the body and not cause a noticeable pathological process. This assumption is confirmed by the continued existence of a high level of antibodies, the expert pointed out.

Chepurnov added that to prove this theory, a biopsy is necessary, but it remains unclear which part of the body to analyze. “It remains a question for many whether this is whether the long-term carriage of antibodies is a fact that indicates the persistence of the virus somewhere in the body,” the virologist concluded.