Article Summary
December 8, 2020
Risk Factors for Severe COVID-19 in Middle-Aged Patients without Comorbidities: A Multicentre Retrospective Study
A multicenter retrospective study focusing on middle-aged (40-59 years) patients (n=119) without comorbidities who were hospitalized with COVID-19 found that 18 of 119 (15%) required mechanical ventilation and 5 of 119 (4%) died. The most common complications were acute respiratory distress syndrome (22%), acute liver injury (13%), and septic shock (4%). Wang et al. (Dec…
SARS-Coronavirus-2 Cases in Healthcare Workers May Not Regularly Originate from Patient Care: Lessons from a University Hospital on the Underestimated Risk of Healthcare Worker to Healthcare Worker Transmission
Investigation of 4 healthcare-associated SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks at a hospital in Germany resulting in 24 infected people suggests healthcare worker (HCW)-to-HCW transmission as the primary mechanism of spread rather than patient-to-HCW transmission. Further investigation showed multiple unprotected contacts between infected HCWs, and no further outbreaks were reported after implementation of contact tracing, testing, physical distancing and…
Three-Month Follow-Up Study of Survivors of Coronavirus Disease 2019 after Discharge
In a follow-up study of 76 COVID-19 survivors, most participants reported symptoms including fever, sputum production, fatigue, diarrhea, and chest tightness on exertion three months after hospital discharge. Pulmonary high-resolution CT was normal for 82% of participants, though 42% had mild pulmonary function abnormalities. 13% of participants were seronegative for IgG and 72% were seronegative…
Changes in Preterm Birth Phenotypes and Stillbirth at 2 Philadelphia Hospitals During the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic, March-June 2020
A retrospective study at 2 Philadelphia hospitals did not detect significant changes between pre-pandemic and pandemic rates of adverse birth outcome. The adjusted difference between pre-pandemic and pandemic preterm births and stillbirths were -0.8% and -0.03 per 1,000 births, respectively. Spontaneous preterm birth among non-Hispanic white patients declined during the pandemic (4.5% vs 2.9%), but…
Defining the Features and Duration of Antibody Responses to SARS-CoV-2 Infection Associated with Disease Severity and Outcome
Analysis of 983 longitudinal plasma samples from 254 SARS-CoV-2 infected individuals with varying disease severity show that compared to severely ill patients, outpatients with mild illness had higher titers of IgG antibodies targeting the S1 domain or receptor binding domain (RBD) of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein than of those targeting the nucleocapsid antigen. Neutralization assays…
SARS-CoV-2 Infection and COVID-19 Severity in Individuals with Prior Seasonal Coronavirus Infection
[Pre-print, not peer reviewed] Similar SARS-CoV-2 infection rates were observed between people with a prior PCR test for seasonal coronavirus that was positive (3.3%) or negative(3.1%) in a retrospective study among individuals with documented PCR testing for seasonal coronavirus and a subsequent PCR result for SARS-CoV-2 (n=2,768). The authors suggest this finding implies that past…
Safety and Efficacy of the ChAdOx1 NCoV-19 Vaccine (AZD1222) against SARS-CoV-2: An Interim Analysis of Four Randomised Controlled Trials in Brazil, South Africa, and the UK
An interim analysis of two of the four ongoing phase 2/3 trials for the Oxford–AstraZeneca chimpanzee adenovirus vectored vaccine ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (n=7,548 in UK trial, n=4,088 in Brazil trial) showed a vaccine efficacy of 62.1% (95%CI 41.0-75.7%) among participants who received the planned two standard doses (27 COVID-19 cases among 4,440 in the vaccine group…
Dynamics and Correlation Among Viral Positivity, Seroconversion, and Disease Severity in COVID-19
Being critically ill was an independent risk factor of longer PCR-confirmed viral positivity in a retrospective study of 2,142 COVID-19 patients in Wuhan, China. The observed median duration of PCR-confirmed viral positivity was 24 days among critically ill patients and 18 days among non-critically ill-patients, with 20% of samples remaining positive after 5 weeks. Seroconversion…
Hydroxychloroquine as Postexposure Prophylaxis to Prevent Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Infection
In a US household-randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial among PCR-negative close contacts of persons with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection (n=689), no difference in SARS-CoV-2 acquisition by day 14 was observed between those receiving hydroxychloroquine post-exposure prophylaxis or placebo (HR = 1.10, 95% CI = 0.73-1.66). More participants in the hydroxychloroquine group experienced adverse events, including gastrointestinal symptoms…
Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies in Seattle Washington October 2019-April 2020
[Pre-print, not peer reviewed] Residual clinical samples from 763 Seattle-area adults collected during March 5-April 1, 2020 show a seroprevalence of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 of 1.2%, which was 11 times greater than the number of confirmed cases in King County as of April 1. The authors note, however, that participant sampling in the study may…
Previous page Next page