ABSTRACT
Background: Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) is a novel infectious disease that was earliest reported in Wuhan, China, but has been later discovered everywhere in the world. On the other hand, Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is ubiquitous in China; having millions of HBV carriers, HBV infection has become a major problem of public health in China. In this study, we aim to describe the clinical features of HBV carriers infected with COVID-19 and to assess factors that may affect the progression and outcome of the disease.Methods: 72 patients diagnosed as infected with both COVID-19 and HBV at the Jinyintan Hospital of Wuhan have been involved in this study. Epidemiological characteristics, demographic features, clinical manifestations, laboratory test, treatment, management and final outcomes of these patients were collected and analyzed.Results: Among all 72 patients (40 male and 32 female, with a median age of 58.5 years old), 22 (30.56%) were diagnosed as severe cases and 50 (69.44%) non-severe cases. Fever is the most common symptom, followed by cough, chest tightness and sputum. Significant differences have been observed in the outcomes of laboratory tests including hematologic, biochemical, infection and coagulation parameters, and in indicators like Aspartate Aminotransferase (AST), Alanine Aminotransferase (ALT), Total Bilirubin (TBil), Direct Bilirubin (DBil), Indirect Bilirubin (IBil) and γ-glutamyl Transferase (GGT) at the admission and discharge of these patients. Especially, levels of Prealbumin (PA) and Serum Amyloid A (SAA) showed an obvious trend of decreasing, which is statistically significant.Conclusions: The clinical features of HBV carriers infected with COVID-19 have obvious systemic symptoms, such as fever, cough, and chest tightness. By comparing their liver functions tested on the dates of admission and discharge, we found that the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, does not directly activate the Hepatitis B virus, so that the risk of liver cell damage for HBV carriers infected with COVID-19 does not increase. Both PA and SAA seem to work as sensitive indicators and can be used to evaluate the prognosis and outcome of these patients.
Subject(s)
Chest Pain , Fever , Cough , Communicable Diseases , COVID-19 , Hepatitis BABSTRACT
Objective. We aimed to describe the features of 220 nonemergency (mild or common type) COVID-19 patients from a shelter hospital, as well as evaluate the efficiency of antiviral drug, Arbidol in their disease progressions. Methods. Basic clinical characteristics were described and the efficacy of Arbidol was evaluated based on gender, age, maximum body temperature of the patients. Results. Basically, males had a higher risk of fever and more onset symptoms than females. Arbidol could accelerate fever recovery and viral clearance in respiratory specimens, particularly in males. Arbidol also contributed to shorter hospital stay without obvious adverse reactions.Conclusions. In the retrospective COVID-19 cohort, gender was one of the important factors affecting patient's conditions. Arbidol showed several beneficial effects in these patients, especially in males. This study brought more researches enlightenment in understanding the emerging infectious disease.