An investigation of a family COVID-19 cluster / 上海预防医学

Objective To investigate epidemic characteristics of a family cluster of COVID-19, and to provide reference in improving the criteria for exclusion diagnosis and medical observation of close contacts. Methods Field epidemiological method was used to investigate the cases and close contacts of a family cluster of COVID-19 in Pudong New Area.Descriptive analysis was conducted on epidemiological data.Real-time fluorescence quantitative RT-PCR was used to detect 2019-nCoV nucleic acid in the respiratory tract specimens. Results There were two confirmed cases and one suspected case in the family cluster.The source of infection was Case 1 with a living history in Wuhan, Hubei Province.Case 2 and Case 3, as close contacts, received 14-day medical observation in a centralized isolation site.Case 2 showed symptoms 4 days after the onset of Case 1, and the diagnosis of COVID-19 was excluded after two negative nucleic acid tests during the isolation period.However, after the expiration of isolation, Case 2 was diagnosed positively for COVID-19 and Case 3 was suspected first and then excluded. Conclusion Daily close contact is critical for COVID-19 transmission and is the major cause of family clustering.Once the close contacts show symptoms, diagnosis should be made by combining the results of nucleic acid test, chest CT test, serological test, etc.We suggest to grade the risk of infection for close contacts, and to strengthen the standard of medical observation for close contacts with high risk of infection.

Adverse drug reactions induced by traditional Chinese medicine treatment for new coronavirus pneumonia during the medical observation period / 药学实践杂志

Objective To investigate the characteristics of the adverse drug reaction (ADR) in the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) treatment followed the "COVID-19 Diagnosis and Treatment Program (trial version 7)" during the medical observation period, and to provide a guideline for rational clinical drug use. Methods 9 TCM induced ADR were collected from CNKI, Wanfang database and PubMed. Statistical analysis was conducted on gender, age, occurrence time, involved system/organ, treatment, outcome and relevance evaluation. Results 61 literatures were collected according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria with 70 cases and 5 TCM prescriptions. There was no significant bias in gender. The age span was large. Most ADR occurred within 1 day after administration. The involved systems/organs are extensive, mainly on the skin and its accessories. The most common therapeutic drugs were antihistamines and steroids, and other medications are mainly for symptom treatment. The turnaround time was 1 h in most cases (47%). Conclusions During the observation period, the incident population was widely distributed and there was no obvious characteristics. Medication monitoring should be reinforced to reduce the ADR incidence.

A Study on Clinical Parameters of Patients with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and Fever-clinic Patients / 中国医师杂志

Objective To investigate clinical features of patients with severe acut respiratory syndrome (SARS) and fever-clinic patients in SARS prevalence days. Methods Clinical data of 45 SARS patients, 150 medical observation patients and 1200 home observation patients from fever-clinic were analyzed retrospectively. Results All the 45 SARS patients had the medical history of close contact with SARS, and their body temperatures were higher than the fever-clinic patients' ones. Leucopenia and lymphopenia in SARS patients were more common than those in the home observation patients, but were similar with those in the medical observation patients. All the SARS patients' chest radiographs showed large area of interstitial infiltration or shadows, and 46 7% patients developed rapidly in a short time. Conlusion Epidemic history and chest radiograph findings may be the major evidences to diagnose SARS, while the fever symptom and blood routine examination may be helpful to screen SARS.