Investigation on health awareness, professional awareness and mental health status of medical students in a military school during the outbreak of novel Coronavirus pneumonia

Objective: To understand the health and professional consciousness and mental health of military medical students during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic. Methods: From Feb. 17 to Feb. 20, 2020, an electronic questionnaire was used to investigate the attitudes and coping styles of military medical students towards quarantine and delay of school opening, their attitudes towards online teaching, and health and professional consciousness during COVID-19 epidemic;and their mental health status was scored by symptom checklist 90 (SCL-90). Results: A total of 2 736 valid questionnaires were collected. The students basically understood and agreed with the quarantine and delay of school opening during the epidemic, and 70.83% (1 938/2 736) supported online teaching. During the quarantine period, 85.31% (2 334/2 736) of the students chose to listen to music or watch TV series for relaxation, and 64.69% (1 770/2 736) insisted on learning, reading literatures or writing papers. Students could basically form the habits of washing hands frequently and wearing masks, and their consciousness of health protection was higher than that before the epidemic. For military medical students, their professional beliefs and determination have been strengthened during the epidemic, and many students wanted to join in the fight against the epidemic. The survey found that 12.94% (354/2 736) of the students had mental health symptoms, and the top 3 SCL-90 factors were obsessive-compulsive disorder (78.53%, 278/354), interpersonal sensitivity (64.12%, 227/354), and depression (44.07%, 156/354). Conclusion: During the epidemic, military medical students can generally adapt to the difficult environment and improve themselves. The mental health problems of military medical students have their own characteristics, special attention must to be paid, and the humanistic education of medical students should be strengthened.

Clinical characteristics of 6 confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 patients

Objective: To analyze the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of confirmed patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and to explore the methods and experiences of early identification and diagnosis of COVID-19.

Isolation and identification of two strains of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 from coronavirus disease 2019 patients in Shanghai

Objective To isolate the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) from nasal/throat swabs of coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) patients. Methods Three nasal/throat swab samples from COVID-19 patients in Shanghai were treated with TPCK trypsin and were used to treat Vero E6 cells inoculated in 96-well plates. When most of the cells showed obvious cytopathy, the cell culture supernatants were collected. We then detected the viral nucleic acid by fluorescent quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, and amplified the gene fragment of the virus receptor binding domain (RBD) by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. After amplification and culture, the virus was used to infect the Vero E6 cells inoculated in 96-well plates. The cytopathy was observed and the virus protein was detected by immunofluorescence. Results The Vero E6 cells that cultured with two of three nasal/pharyngeal swab samples showed obvious cytopathic effect and newly synthesized viral nucleic acid was detected in the supernatants of the cell culture. The amplified RBD sequence was completely consistent with the corresponding fragment of SARS-CoV-2 isolated earlier. Virus-infected Vero E6 cells showed cytopathies rapidly and could react with the monoclonal antibody against nucleocapsid protein (N protein) and spike protein (S protein) of SARS-CoV-2, and convalescence sera of COVID-19 patients. Conclusion Two SARS-CoV-2 strains were successfully isolated from two nasal/throat swab samples of COVID-19 patients in Shanghai, which provides evidence for the mechanism research on the infection and pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 as well as the development of drugs and vaccines against SARS-CoV-2.