Abstract
Patients with coronavirus disease-2019 may be discharged based on clinical resolution of symptoms, and evidence for viral RNA clearance from the upper respiratory tract. Understanding the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) viral clearance profile is crucial to establish a re-testing plan on discharge and ending isolation of patients. We aimed to evaluate the number of days that a patient needed to achieve undetectable levels of SARS-CoV-2 in upper respiratory tract specimens (nasopharyngeal swab and/or an oropharyngeal swab). The clearance and persistence of viral RNA was evaluated in two groups of positive patients: those who achieved two negative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests and those who kept testing positive. Patients were organized thereafter in two subgroups, mild illness patients discharged home and inpatients who had moderate to severe illness. Results from RT-PCR tests were then correlated with results from the evaluation of the immune response. The study evidenced that most patients tested positive for more than 2 weeks and that persistence of viral RNA is not necessarily associated with severe disease but may result from a weaker immune response instead.
Keywords: COVID-19; RT-PCR; SARS-CoV-2; clearance.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, RT-PCR, clearance., 【초록키워드】 coronavirus, immune response, discharge, viral clearance, Nasopharyngeal swab, persistence, oropharyngeal swab, Patient, Isolation, understanding, Viral RNA, upper respiratory tract, moderate, patients, Evidence, RT-PCR test, severe disease, Inpatient, acute respiratory syndrome, specimen, mild illness, positive, clearance, two subgroups, viral RNA clearance, weaker immune response, discharged home, Result, tested, evaluate, evaluated, correlated, two group, discharged, evidenced, organized, resolution of symptoms, undetectable, 【제목키워드】 persistence, SARS-CoV-2 RNA, patients with COVID-19,