Muzafer Kayasan (screenshot of the report)
According to the British "Daily Mail" reported on the 16th, a Turkish man with leukemia tested positive for the new coronavirus 78 times in a 14-month period, which is considered to set a world record for active cases of new coronavirus infection.
Muzafir Kayasan, 56, was isolated from his family for 441 days. Normally, an infected person who develops symptoms may test negative after about 5 days, but for Kayasan, he has tested positive for 14 months in a row. Doctors believe it's because leukemia weakens his immune system.
It is reported that Kayasan has been hospitalized since November 2020, but his mental state has been very good. While battling leukemia, he continues to fight COVID-19. Last week, when he found out that his latest nucleic acid test was positive again, he joked: "I guess the coronavirus is a woman – she has always been fascinated by me." Kayasan has been living alone in the apartment for months, and although his family often visits him, he can only talk through a glass door.
Screenshot of the report
According to a study published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine, people with a suppressed immune system are at risk of long-term contraction with severe acute respiratory syndrome. Another study by the American Leukemia and Lymphoma Society showed that 1 in 4 blood cancer patients were still unable to produce detectable antibodies after receiving two doses of the vaccine.
Usually, patients infected with the new crown virus stop showing symptoms after a few days and test negative after a maximum of 10 days. However, in the case of long-term infection with the new crown virus, patients who test negative may continue to experience symptoms, including impaired intelligence and insomnia, weeks or months after the infection disappears.
Serap Himsek Yavuz, the attending physician at Kayasan and professor of infectious diseases and clinical microbiology at Istanbul University, said the case was the longest infected case they had tracked and was currently closely monitoring for the risk of developing a virus variant.
According to Turkey's guidelines, a positive test result makes Kayasan ineligible for vaccination, and he must wait until he is fully recovered before he can be vaccinated. Kayasan, who has reportedly lost his sense of taste and smell during the ordeal, called on the authorities to at least ease his "imprisonment."
(Editor: WDQ)