• Tyng-Yuan Jang, Hsin-Hui Wang, Chung-Feng Huang, Chia-Yen Dai, Jee-Fu Huang, Wan-Long Chuang, Cheng-Yu Kuo, and Ming-Lung Yu.
• Hepatobiliary Division, Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan; Department of Internal Medicine, Pingtung Hospital, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Ping-Tung, Taiwan; PhD Program of Environmental and Occupational Medicine and Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan.
• J Formos Med Assoc. 2022 Sep 1; 121 (9): 1767-1772.

BackgroundAn outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant infection occurred in Pingtung, Taiwan, in June 2021. In this study, we aimed to elucidate the clinical characteristics of the Delta-variant SARS-CoV-2 infection and the treatment outcome of antiviral agents in patients from Pingtung County in Southern Taiwan.MethodsA total of 11 patients with Delta-variant COVID-19 were consecutively admitted to a governmental hospital in June 2021. Baseline characteristics and treatment outcome were evaluated.ResultsAll patients were symptomatic. The most common symptoms were cough (72.7%), followed by fever (54.5%), headache (18.2%) and dysosmia/dysgeusia (18.2%). Two patients developed pneumonia without mechanical ventilation requirement. Compared to patients without pneumonia, those with pneumonia had higher aspartate aminotransferase (AST) (21.0 vs. 126.0 IU/L, P = 0.03) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) (143.1 vs. 409.0 IU/mL, P = 0.03), and ferritin (0.2 vs. 2.0 mg/L, P = 0.046) levels. Pneumonia improved after 2-week treatment, and no mortality occurred after 30 days of diagnosis. The median duration of viral shedding duration of viral shedding was 16.5 days (range 11-42 days) (defined by time to repeated negative real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) or a cycle threshold (CT) value ≥ 30).ConclusionWe demonstrated the clinical characteristics of Delta-variant COVID-19 and treatment outcome of antiviral agents. The risk factors attributed to pneumonia were higher serum AST, ferritin, and LDH levels.Copyright © 2022 Formosan Medical Association. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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