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Background and Aim: In January 2021, vaccination against CoViD-19 was started in Italy. F. Miulli Regional Hospital, in Acquaviva delle Fonti (BA), has prepared a vaccination plan in order to cover the entire health care population which, starting from January 6, 2021, led to the vaccination of 1,700 subjects. Purpose of the study was to evaluate the impact of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination on healthcare personnel. Primary outcomes were: the number of infections detected after vaccination and hospitalizations for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Materials and Methods: Nasopharyngeal swabs were analyzed with reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction techniques. Vaccination campaign was carried out in the period January-February 2021. The data were compared according to three periods: time 0: March-April 2020;time 1: October2020-January 2021;time 2 (post vaccine): February-April 2021. Results: The swabs analyzed were respectively: Time 0: 1.077;Time 1: 9.043;Time 2: 4.013. The positive tests and their percentage, relative to the swabs examined in the three times, are: Time 0: 17 cases (1.57%);Time 1: 137 cases (1.51%);Time 2: 15 cases (0.37%). Furthermore, none of the positive subjects at time 2 required hospitalization, compared to 3.2% of hospitalizations which occurred between time 0 and time 1. Conclusions: Vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 resulted in a 75.3% reduction in infections in vaccinated subjects and a 100% reduction in hospitalizations, indicating a high protective effect for both infection and disease expression.
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Background and Aim of the study: Data on the recent SARS-Cov-2 pandemic show that women have a lower incidence of infectionsand more favorable outcomes. It is not clear whether the sex disparities occur in all age groups and whether it may depend on adifferent immune response. The aim of the study was to verify thedifferences between males (M) and females (F), comparing theimmune response and the outcomes in the two groups.Methods: We studied all SARS-Cov-2 infected patients hospitalized from the 10th of March to 31th of May 2020. At the time ofadmission, in addition to the common laboratory tests and inflammatory parameters (IL6, CRP), we evaluated B and T cells (CD3),helper/suppressor ratio (CD4/CD8), and NK cells (CD56). Results: 152 patients, 91 M (59.8%) were analyzed. The averageage was 68±17 years;the F group was older (76±14 vs 63±16;p <0.001), with a higher percentage of subjects >75 years: 59%vs 27.9% (p <0.001). A higher CD4/CD8 ratio was found in subjects >75 years of age compared to those aged 60-75 (2.3±1.2vs 1.9±1.4;p<0.05) and in F group (2.8±2.3 vs 2.2±1.4;p<0.05). Interestingly, an inverse correlation between IL6 and CD3was found in both sexes, but highly significant in the M group(p<0.001;r-0.48). Finally, a higher number of in-hospital deathswere found in the F group: 23.9% vs 9.9% (p <0.03).Conclusions: SARS-Cov-2 infection affects mainly M subjects,that show an inverse correlation between IL6 and CD3 cells. TheF group over 75 years has a higher CD4 / CD8 ratio and highermortality.
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Background and Aim of the study: Several studies show that microbial co-infection increases the risk of disease severity in humans, but there is limited knowledge on co-infection amongpatients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The aim ofthe study was to evaluate co-infections with other pathogensamong COVID-19 cases. Methods: In this study, we analyzed the laboratory-confirmedCOVID-19 consecutive patients admitted at Miulli General Hospitalfrom the 17th of March to the 31th of May 2020. We included patients in all settings, either in Covid wards and in ICU. We soughtto define the prevalence of patients with bacterial and fungal coinfections.Results: Overall, 233 patients (M 59%;age 67±18 years) were examined;52 (22.3%) of them were co-infected with one or morepathogens;in total 27 respiratory pathogens were found. Copathogens included different bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Mycoplasma, Chlamydia and Candidaspecies. In addition, 7.7% of patients had pathogens with resistancegenes. Most co-infections occurred within 5 days of onset of COVID-19 disease. A higher prevalence of ICU patients had bacterial coinfections than patients in a mixed ward (72.7% vs 17.1%;p<0.001), and the fungal co-infections and bacterial-fungal co-infections were more prevalent in severe COVID-19 cases.Conclusions: A low proportion of COVID-19 patients have a bacterial co-infection;while in ICU the prevalence increases. These results suggest that routine antibiotics might not be indicated inpatients with COVID-19.
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Background and Aim of the study: The COVID-19 pandemic israpidly spreading throughout the globe. Recent reports suggestthat 10-30% of SARS-CoV-2 infected patients are asymptomatic.Here, we reported the positive rate of COVID-19 tests supportedon RT-PCR, from March 14 to April 15 in General Hospital 'F. Miulli'(South of Italy). We observed a ~18% SARS-CoV-2 positive ratefrom 912 tests. Methods: The study was a retrospective study conducted in Regional General Hospital 'F. Miulli' (Acquaviva delle Fonti, BA), whichwas a chosen hospital for Covid-19 patients. The diagnosis ofCovid-19 was according to World Health Organization interim guidance and confirmed by RNA detection of the SARS-CoV-2 in onsiteclinical laboratory. Results: Nasopharyngeal swabs showed poor positive rate in 912cases, 163 out of 912 (17.9%) were positive by RT-PCR test withtheir respiratory specimens. Among this, 92.8% were positive forall the three target genes. Male had a higher positive rate than female in the total 912 cases. The male patients are 107, femaleare 56. The Positive Rate were significantly higher in male than infemale cases (p < 0.01). When we analyzed the positive rate according to age, we could see that positive rate increased from0.6% (age 18-30) to 25.0% (age >70) and 30.8% (age 50-59).Gender and age are two risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection.Conclusions: Therefore, consistent with other reports, we couldconclude that for suspect SARS-CoV-2 infection, positive percentage would be higher in male and old, but in Fever Clinics, genderwas not a risk factor.