International journal of infectious diseases : IJID : official publication of the International Society for Infectious Diseases
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Int. J. Infect. Dis. · Aug 2020
Multicenter Study Observational StudyTreatment with hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, and combination in patients hospitalized with COVID-19.
The United States is in an acceleration phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently there is no known effective therapy or vaccine for treatment of SARS-CoV-2, highlighting urgency around identifying effective therapies. ⋯ In this multi-hospital assessment, when controlling for COVID-19 risk factors, treatment with hydroxychloroquine alone and in combination with azithromycin was associated with reduction in COVID-19 associated mortality. Prospective trials are needed to examine this impact.
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The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in China has been basically controlled. However, the global epidemic of COVID-19 is worsening. We established a method to estimate the instant case fatality rate (CFR) and cure rate of COVID-19 in China. ⋯ The instant CFR of COVID-19 in China overall was much higher than that in China except Hubei Province. The CFR of COVID-19 in China was underestimated.
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Int. J. Infect. Dis. · Aug 2020
ReviewIron: Innocent bystander or vicious culprit in COVID-19 pathogenesis?
The coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic is viciously spreading through the continents with rapidly increasing mortality rates. Current management of COVID-19 is based on the premise that respiratory failure is the leading cause of mortality. However, mounting evidence links accelerated pathogenesis in gravely ill COVID-19 patients to a hyper-inflammatory state involving a cytokine storm. ⋯ Another key component of the heightened inflammatory state is hyper-ferritinemia which reportedly identifies patients with increased mortality risk. In spite of its strong association with mortality, it is not yet clear if hyper-ferritinemia in COVID-19 patients is merely a systemic marker of disease progression, or a key modulator in disease pathogenesis. Here we address implications of a possible role for hyper-ferritinemia, and altered iron homeostasis in COVID-19 pathogenesis, and potential therapeutic targets in this regard.
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Int. J. Infect. Dis. · Aug 2020
Presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in isolation ward environment 28 days after exposure.
Recent studies have reported that surfaces and objects in the rooms of infected patients that are frequently touched by both medical staff and patients could be contaminated with SARS-CoV-2. In December 2019, Wuhan China suffered the earliest from this COVID-19 pandemic, and we took that opportunity to investigate whether the SARS-CoV-2 RNA exists in the ward environment after a long time from exposure. ⋯ Thorough disinfection of the ward environment was subsequently performed, after which these surfaces in the isolation wards tested negative for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA. The findings remind us that the contaminated environment in the wards may become potential infectious resources and that despite a long time from exposure, the thorough disinfection in the COVID-10 units after is still necessary.
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Int. J. Infect. Dis. · Aug 2020
Multiple assays in a real-time RT-PCR SARS-CoV-2 panel can mitigate the risk of loss of sensitivity by new genomic variants during the COVID-19 outbreak.
In this study, five SARS-CoV-2 PCR assay panels were evaluated against the accumulated genetic variability of the virus to assess the effect on sensitivity of the individual assays. ⋯ This analysis stresses the importance of targeting more than one region in the viral genome for SARS-CoV-2 detection to mitigate the risk of loss of sensitivity due to the unknown mutation rate during this SARS-CoV-2 outbreak.