Pieces of the COVID virus can lurk in our blood and tissue for almost two years after the initial illness has vanished, a discovery that might offer clues to the mystery of lingering post-infection disability, according to new research from UC San Francisco.
Four years after the U.S. went into lockdown, the worst of the pandemic has passed. But for people with long COVID, the illness remains a daily misery.
The new research suggests why: The virus is not always fully cleared after the initial infection, so remains deeply embedded, even though people are no longer contagious.
It is not yet known if these small viral proteins, called antigens, are causing long COVID. But, based on the new discovery, the UCSF team is conducting clinical trials of potential therapies that could attack the hidden pathogen.
“This can be a persistent infection for some people,” said Dr. Timothy Henrich, professor of medicine at UCSF who co-authored the research, presented at last week’s Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Denver. “We’re concerned that this could be leading to, at least in part, some of the long COVID symptoms that people have been experiencing.”
While COVID remains much more serious than the usual seasonal flu, safe and highly effective vaccines have caused a dramatic decline in infections and deaths.