KYW Newsradio's Medical Reports are sponsored by Independence Blue Cross.
By Dr. Brian McDonough, Medical Editor
PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The way that COVID-19 spreads has not changed, but the virus is very capable of changing.
Viruses mutate — that is how they survive. They try to stay one step ahead of our immune systems.
That is why someone exposed to COVID-19 does not get total immunity forever and why vaccines, which can be altered and given in booster forms, are so necessary.
Mutations can happen in all sorts of settings. A report from Brigham and Women's Hospital details the case of a man who was chronically infected over months.
Genetic tests performed while hospitalized showed that the patient, who had an underlying condition that weakened his immunity, had been infected with the same virus all along but that it had been evolving as it replicated.
The researchers called the case incredible, and it show this virus cannot be underestimated.
