ABSTRACT
Since the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been declared a pandemic, the possibility of recurrence of the disease after recovery has become a debated issue. We report a case of an 84-years-old male patient who was admitted to our hospital for dyspnea and fever. Lab and clinical workout showed that he had COVID-19. After a full recovery of symptoms and a double negative nasopharyngeal swab of severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) by realtime polymerase chain reaction assay, he was discharged from the hospital. One month later, he developed dyspnea and fever again with lung involvement. Surprisingly, the nasopharyngeal swab of SARS-CoV-2 was positive. Since he denied contacts with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19, he probably experienced a reactivation of a persistent infection. The failed eradication of the virus could depend on both virus' escape mechanisms and dysfunctional immune response. Further studies are needed to confirm the hypothesis of viral reactivation and identify signs of an incomplete clearance.
ABSTRACT
Background: Up-to-date cancer burden indicators provide an important source of information for supporting political decision making, as well as for epidemiological research and the general public. Nevertheless, observed cancer incidence and mortality suffer from an inherent registration delay in the data production workflow. To overcome this, the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre in collaboration with the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer have computed estimates of cancer incidence and mortality, for the year 2020 and for European countries, in the framework of the European Cancer Information System (ECIS). Methods: Predicted values for the year 2020 are based on the incidence data of more than 150 European population-based cancer registries included in ECIS, and on mortality data provided by WHO. Ad-hoc statistical models were developed on the basis of the most recent time trends of observed data to estimate cancer incidence and mortality rates in each EU country for the year 2020. Estimated rates were then applied to the projected population figures for 2020 from EUROSTAT in order to calculate the predicted number of new cases and deaths for 2020 in 40 European countries. Results: The number of new cancer cases and deaths in 2020 has been estimated per country by sex and age group, for 25 major cancer sites. The results are included and disseminated through the European Cancer Information System (ECIS) web application. Conclusions: The release of up-to-date cancer incidence and mortality estimates is of great importance to support EU evidence-based cancer policies. The homogeneity of the estimation methods applied throughout Europe guarantees the comparability of the estimated values between countries. Reliable and comparable estimates highlight differences between countries in cancer incidence and mortality, thus facilitating the identification of possible intervention areas. The applied methodology couldn’t take into account the possible impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the projected rates. A future exercise to evaluate the discrepancy between projected and observed rates will allow quantification of this impact. Legal entity responsible for the study: The authors. Funding: European Commission. Disclosure: All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.