The study was led by Dr Daniel Chertow, a tenure-track investigator in the Critical Care Medicine Department at the NIH Clinical Center and in the Laboratory of Immunoregulation at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Among the key findings of the autopsy study viral persistence was detected almost all of the cases and that the virus was active in various organs and tissues of the human host. In some cases, SARS-CoV-2 RNA failed to clear from multiple anatomic compartments of the human host for up to 230 days (more than 7 months)!
The study showed that theSARS-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 week following symptom onset.
The study detected viral sgRNA in at least one tissue in over half of cases (14/27) beyond 14 days, suggesting that prolonged viral replication may occur in extra-pulmonary tissues as late as 99 days.
This means that SARS-CoV-2 can replicate within human host tissue for over 3 months after infection in some individuals, with RNA failing to clear from multiple anatomic compartments for up to 230 days or maybe even longer!
The study also found that the virus infects the Central Nervous System (CNS) and brain of more than half of the cases.
The study findings have enormous implications about Long COVID and also the medical conditions associated with such viral persistence in most Post COVID individuals.
In reality, we can now say that SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19 is a disease that literally kills individuals slowly despite being deemed as recovered by current diagnostics and test!
The study findings are not yet published but were released in a video as part of the U.S. NIH–FDA COVID-19 SIG lecture – https://videocast.nih.gov/watch=45296?jwsource=twi
