Prolonged viral shedding of SARS-CoV-2 and related factors in symptomatic COVID-19 patients: a prospective study.
BMC Infect Dis
; 21(1): 1282, 2021 Dec 27.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1634834
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
The temporal relationship between SARS-CoV-2 and antibody production and clinical progression remained obscure. The aim of this study was to describe the viral kinetics of symptomatic patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection and identify factors that might contribute to prolonged viral shedding.METHODS:
Symptomatic COVID-19 patients were enrolled in two hospitals in Wuhan, China, from whom the respiratory samples were collected and measured for viral loads consecutively by reverse transcriptase quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) assay. The viral shedding pattern was delineated in relate to the epidemiologic and clinical information.RESULTS:
Totally 2726 respiratory samples collected from 703 patients were quantified. The SARS-CoV-2 viral loads were at the highest level during the initial stage after symptom onset, which subsequently declined with time. The median time to SARS-CoV-2 negativity of nasopharyngeal test was 28 days, significantly longer in patients with older age (> 60 years old), female gender and those having longer interval from symptom onset to hospital admission (> 10 days). The multivariate Cox regression model revealed significant effect from older age (HR 0.73, 95% CI 0.55-0.96), female gender (HR 0.72, 95% CI 0.55-0.96) and longer interval from symptom onset to admission (HR 0.44, 95% CI 0.33-0.59) on longer time to SARS-CoV-2 negativity. The IgM antibody titer was significantly higher in the low viral loads group at 41-60 days after symptom onset. At the population level, the average viral loads were higher in early than in late outbreak periods.CONCLUSIONS:
The prolonged viral shedding of SARS-CoV-2 was observed in COVID-19 patients, particularly in older, female and those with longer interval from symptom onset to admission.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
COVID-19
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Topics:
Long Covid
Limits:
Aged
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Middle aged
Language:
English
Journal:
BMC Infect Dis
Journal subject:
Communicable Diseases
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
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