Guy Has Been Testing Positive for COVID-19 for Over 14 Months Due to Weakened Immune System

2022-02-17 , 12:18 pm

Staying cooped up in a room for multiple days after testing positive for COVID-19 isn’t too fun, especially when you can’t smell or taste anything. Now, imagine doing that for more than a month. Or a year.

Well, here’s someone who doesn’t have to imagine, because he has tested positive for the virus for the past fourteen months.

Longest Recorded COVID-19 Infection

Muzaffer Kayasan, 56, has been infected with COVID-19 since November 2020, all while suffering from leukaemia.

When he first caught the virus, Kayasan thought he would die but after more than a year and 78 consistently positive tests later, he is still alive.

Turkey’s longest recorded continuous COVID-19 infection now belongs to him, possibly due to a weakened immune system from the cancer, doctors say.

You would think Kayasan would be dispirited from having to fight the virus for so long. However, despite being in and out of the hospital, his spirits have been high.

“I guess this is the female version of Covid — she has been obsessed with me,” Mr Kayasan even joked last week as he found out that his latest PCR test was, yet again, positive.

Separated From Family

Perhaps the most tragic thing for Kayasan is being separated from his family throughout the whole period.

Nine months in hospital and five months mostly alone in his flat have separated him from much of the outside world.

His granddaughter, Azra, can only stay in the garden while visiting, talking through the glass back door.

“I will play with you when I get well,” he told her through a mask after giving her a plastic toy telephone.

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Closely Monitored

Coronavirus patients with immunosuppression are at risk of prolonged infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome, according to a study published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Another by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society shows one in four blood cancer patients do not produce detectable antibodies even after receiving two vaccine shots.

Mr Kayasan’s doctor, Serap Simsek Yavuz, infectious diseases and clinical microbiology professor at Istanbul University, said this is the longest case they have tracked and it is being closely monitored for any risk of a mutated variant.

“The case of a patient testing positive for 441 days is not something that has been reported until today,” said Cagri Buke, doctor of infectious diseases and clinical microbiology at Acibadem Hospital.

Unable to Be Vaccinated

Due to his positive test results, Kayasan is ineligible for a vaccine, which according to Turkey guidelines, requires positive patients to make a full recovery prior to being vaccinated.

Kayasan, who lost his sense of taste and smell through the ordeal, has appealed to authorities to at least ease his confinement.

His son, Gokhan Kayasan, said his father had always been a “positive” person — just not in this way.

“We kept saying how positive he is and now the guy turned positive (for COVID-19) and can’t go back to negative,” he said.

Well, it is indeed remarkable how Kayasan has managed to battle the virus for so long. While he might be positive for COVID-19, it is fortunate that he also has a positive mindset.