BREAKING! COVID-19 News: Finally, U.S. NIH Warns SARS-CoV-2 Viral Persistence Is A Serious Issue That Is Also Affecting Long COVID!

COVID-19 News: After yet another autopsy study, this time involving 44 patients who died from COVID-19 and Long COVID, the study team from the U.S. NIH and U.S. NIAID who found active SARS-CoV-2 RNA is various anatomic sites including the brain and various organs, have issued a warning that SARS-CoV-2 is more serious than thought and urgent research is needed to develop treatment protocols to address the issue.


 
The study findings were worrisome as in many cases, viral persistence was found months after initial symptom onset of COVID-19 or initial detection via standard test. Many do not display signs of inflammation caused by the virus presence and even other symptoms till severe damage materializes.
 
In one case, the study team detected active SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the brain of a patient 230 days following symptom onset.
 
The researchers found active replicative SARS-CoV-2 virus in cardiovascular, lymphoid, gastrointestinal, renal, endocrine, reproductive, muscle, brain and other tissue although none of these areas sustained significant inflammation compared to what they found in the respiratory tract!
 
According to the study team, COVID-19 is known to cause multi-organ dysfunction  during acute infection with SARS-CoV-2, with some patients experiencing prolonged symptoms, termed post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2.
 
However, the burden of infection outside the respiratory tract and time to viral clearance are not well characterized, particularly in the brain.
 
The study team carried out complete autopsies on 44 patients who died with COVID-19, with extensive sampling of the central nervous system in 11 of these patients, to map and quantify the distribution, replication and cell-type specificity of SARS-CoV-2 across the human body, including the brain, from acute infection to more than seven months following symptom onset.
 
Alarmingly, the study findings showed that SARS-CoV-2 is widely distributed, predominantly among patients who died with severe COVID-19, and that virus replication is present in multiple respiratory and non-respiratory tissues, including the brain, early in infection.
 
Shockingly, the study team detected persistent SARS-CoV-2 RNA in multiple anatomic sites, including throughout the brain, as late as 230 days following symptom onset in one case.
 
Worryingly, despite extensive distribution of SARS-CoV-2 RNA throughout the body, the study team observed little evidence of inflammation or direct viral cytopathology outside the respiratory tract.
 
The study findings indicate that in some patients SARS-CoV-2 can cause systemic infection and persist in the body for months.
 
The study findings were published in the peer reviewed journal: Nature.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05542-y

The study findings has serious implications as to how the COVID-19 pandemic has been wrongly managed in the last three years...starting with stupid diagnostics and protocols to determine that a person has "rec overed' from COVID-19 using only nasal or saliva tests and also the lack of any effective antivirals that can really help with total virus clearance in the human host.
 
Thailand Medical News had already been warning about SARS-CoV-2 viral persistence in our various COVID-19 News coverages since mid-2020 and that current approach to diagnostics and determining who has recovered form COVID-19 and also treatment protocols are all wrong as we are not completely clearing the virus out of the body.
 
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/covid-news-new-york-scientists-find-sars-cov-2-viral-presence-in-the-lung-up-to-359-days-after-acute-phase-of-disease-even-in-the-negative-tested
 
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/world-covid-19-news-global-deaths-crosses-1-6-million-milestone,-infections-pass-71-8-million-why-are-authorities-downplaying-viral-persistence
 
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/breaking-u-s-nih-study-shockingly-reveals-sars-cov-2-viral-persistence-throughout-human-body-and-in-the-brain-even-in-those-who-were-asymptomatic
 
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/breaking-sars-cov-2-persists-in-intestinal-enterocytes-up-to-7-months-after-symptom-resolution--viral-persistence-is-real-and-a-serious-issue
 
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/breaking-latest-u-s-nih-study-reveals-viral-persistence-is-a-major-issue-and-that-sars-cov-2-replicates-in-tissues-for-months-in-post-covid-individua
 
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/covid-19-news-yale-study-shockingly-finds-that-pbmc-myeloid-cells-harbors--sars-cov-2-genomes-with-implications-for-viral-persistence-and-misc-dangers
 
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/viral-persistence-georgia-state-university-study-indicates-that-sars-cov-2-may-hide-in-the-brain-and-cause-relapses-in-recovered-patients
 
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/covid-19-research-university-of-california-led-study-finds-that-brain-pericytes-could-be-entry-points-for-sars-cov-2-and-are-potential-reservoirs
 
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/new-covid-19-diagnostics-urgently-needed-as-the-current-nasal-or-saliva-swabs-tests-are-unable-to-detect-viral-persistence-let-alone-new-variants
 
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/study-in-china-reveals-persistence-fecal-virus-shedding-in-children-deemed-recovered-from-covid-19-after-testing-negative-via-nasal-swab-tests
 
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/children-s-hospital-los-angeles-led-study-alarmingly-shows-sars-cov-2-causing-viral-persistence-in-children-and-young-adults-with-cancer
 
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/covid-19-news-warning-millions-of-recovered-covid-19-patients-could-be-walking-around-with-residual-reservoirs-of-the-sars-cov-2-virus-in-them
 
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/breaking-many-long-covid-19-patients-have-higher-levels-of-circulating-sars-cov-2-viral-rna-compared-to-those-with-acute-infection
 
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/yet-another-alarming-research-finding-persistence-of-sars-cov-2-s1-protein-found-in-cd16-monocytes-of-post-covid-19-patients-up-to-15-months-after-so-
 
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/nice-neurologists-finds-replicable-sars-cov-2-rna-in-cerebrospinal-fluid-of-a-woman-114-days-after-she-was-diagnosed-with-asymptomatic-covid-19
 
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/breaking-study-shows-that-covid-19-can-cause-intestinal-ischemia-and-gastrointestinal-issues-in-asymptomatic-individuals-who-continue-to-test-negative
 
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/breaking-brazilian-and-american-study-discovers-that-the-testes-of-males-could-be-viral-sanctuaries-for-the-sars-cov-2-virus
 
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/breaking-corpse-test-positive-for-sars-cov-2-virus-for-28-times-six-weeks-after-death-indicating-long-term-viral-persistence
 
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/breaking-long-covid-is-a-misnomer-the-conditions-are-being-caused-by-viral-persistence-and-viral-peptides-similar-to-retrotransposons-and-introns
 
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/breaking-researchers-present-case-reports-of-long-covid-patients-with-persistence-of-residual-sars-cov-2-antigen-and-rna-in-various-tissues
 
The latest study findings from the U.S. NIH and U.S. NIAD shows that the disease-causing SARS-CoV-2 virus is able to spread throughout the body ie beyond just being a respiratory disease and can remain in various tissues and organs for months.
 
The study findings hopefully help other researchers and scientists broaden their perspectives on where SARS-CoV-2 could cause infection and persist, including the brain.
 
Research findings from the autopsies, which took place between April 2020 and March 2021, confirmed that SARS-CoV-2 primarily infected and damaged the airway and lungs.
 
Alarmingly, scientists also found virus fragments (viral RNA) in 79 of 85 body locations, with some virus found up to 230 days after patient’s symptoms began.
 
The study team worryingly  and found active SARS-CoV-2 virus in cardiovascular, lymphoid, gastrointestinal, renal, endocrine, reproductive, muscle, brain and other tissues and cell types although none of these areas sustained significant inflammation compared to what they found in the respiratory tract!
 
The study team comprising of scientists from NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Clinical Center led the work, closely collaborating with National Cancer Institute (NCI) pathologists, four other NIH institutes, the University of Maryland, and Maryland health care facilities in Salisbury and Towson.
 
Senior author, Dr Daniel Chertow from the Emerging Pathogens Section, Critical Care Medicine Department, Clinical Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda-USA told Thailand Medical News, “Our study findings show that the SARS-CoV-2 virus disseminates across the human body and brain early in infection at high levels and provide evidence of virus replication at multiple extrapulmonary sites during the first two weeks following symptom onset.”
 
He further added, “Worryingly, the SARS-CoV-2 virus can spread throughout the body and viral RNA may remain detectable for months even in cases with mild or no symptoms.”
 
He said, “The original thinking in the field was that SARS-CoV-2 was predominantly a respiratory virus. However, finding the viral fragments in tissue throughout the body and sharing those findings with colleagues a year ago, helped scientists explore a relationship between the viral fragments and Long COVID.”
 
The condition …Long COVID gets its name from the persistent symptoms some individuals experience after having COVID-19; symptoms can be debilitating, and the cause is not known.
 
Although the study team did not specifically explore Long COVID, finding the viral RNA throughout the body raised speculation that those fragments might contribute to the persistent symptoms.
 
Finding proper efficient antivirals that can truly eradicate SARS-CoV-2 reservoirs in the human body and also developing proper diagnostics to check for viral persistence is urgently warranted.
 
The current method of using nasal or saliva swabs to test and determine whether a person has recovered from COVID-19 is totally ridiculous and is laughable that this has been the standards in the last three years!
 
Thailand Medical News strongly believes that SARS-CoV-2 viral persistence is a contributing factor to Long COVID along with viral peptides persistence in the human host even after virus clearance along with the damages done to the various cellular pathways, genes, organs and tissues.
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/breaking-long-covid-is-a-misnomer-the-conditions-are-being-caused-by-viral-persistence-and-viral-peptides-similar-to-retrotransposons-and-introns
 
SARS-CoV-2 viral persistence will also contribute to excess deaths and will affect the health of many, some who are not even aware that they had been exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus!
 
Many will eventually succumb to various types of fatal outcomes ranging from heart failures, strokes organ failures sepsis etc.
 
Thailand Medical News also keeps on warning that many exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus will only have 5 to 8 years left while actually many might not even make it till then. Constant breakthrough infections and reinfections will even contribute to many having their lifespans even shortened.
 
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/breaking-hypothesis-that-majority-exposed-to-sars-cov-2-will-have-shortened-lifespans-validated-by-study-showing-nsp2-impairs-human-4ehp-gigyf2-comple
 
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/most-who-have-been-exposed-to-the-proteins-of-the-sars-cov-2-virus-will-have-shortened-lifespans-stop-using-fluvoxamine-for-ba-2-infections
 
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/breaking-covid-19-news-sars-cov-2-infections-lead-to-cellular-m6a-rna-methylation-loss-in-host-cells-possible-implications-for-cancer-and-other-issues
 
For the latest COVID-19 News, keep on logging to Thailand Medical News.