Articles: sars-cov-2.
-
Open Forum Infect Dis · Jul 2020
SARS-CoV-2 Screening Test for Japanese Returnees From Wuhan, China, January 2020.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was found to be the causative microorganism of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which started to spread in Wuhan, China. This study was to evaluate the effectiveness of questionnaire, symptoms-based screening, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) screening of returnees from COVID-19-endemic areas on a chartered flight, to examine the proportion of infected persons and the proportion of asymptomatic persons among infected persons who returned from Wuhan. ⋯ Our results will be important insights on screening returnees from locked-down cities, as well as providing important data on the proportion of asymptomatic individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2. A 13-day observation period and a second round of PCR may be effective to screen patients, including asymptomatic infections.
-
The accuracy and reliability of COVID-19 testing are critical to limit transmission. After observing variability in testing techniques, we otolaryngologists at a tertiary medical center initiated and evaluated the impact of nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swabbing training, including video instruction, to standardize sampling techniques and ensure high-quality specimens. ⋯ Video-assisted hands-on instruction for nasopharyngeal swab sampling can be used to standardize teaching. When prompt and accurate testing is paramount, this instruction can optimize procedural technique and should be used early and often. In addition, there may be a professional responsibility of otolaryngologists to participate in such initiatives.
-
Int. J. Infect. Dis. · Jul 2020
Case ReportsA case of transient existence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the respiratory tract with the absence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody response.
We report the case of a patient who had travelled to Japan and who presented mild respiratory symptoms during the COVID-19 outbreak period. There was transient existence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) RNA in his oropharynx. ⋯ An anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody response was absent in the acute and convalescent sera. The reported case indicates that transient colonization of SARS-CoV-2 in the upper respiratory tract is possible without inciting any antibody response against the virus.
-
SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 do not appear to have functions of a hemagglutinin and neuraminidase. This is a mystery, because sugar binding activities appear essential to many other viruses including influenza and even most other coronaviruses in order to bind to and escape from the glycans (sugars, oligosaccharides or polysaccharides) characteristic of cell surfaces and saliva and mucin. The S1 N terminal Domains (S1-NTD) of the spike protein, largely responsible for the bulk of the characteristic knobs at the end of the spikes of SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2, are here predicted to be "hiding" sites for recognizing and binding glycans containing sialic acid. ⋯ It might even open up the possibility of an alternative receptor to ACE2. The prediction method developed, which uses amino acid residue sequence alone to predict domains or proteins that bind to sialic acids, is naïve, and will be advanced in future work. Nonetheless, it was surprising that such a very simple approach was so useful, and it can easily be reproduced in a very few lines of computer program to help make quick comparisons between SARS-CoV-2 sequences and to consider the effects of viral mutations.