Long-term SARS-CoV-2 RNA shedding and its temporal association to IgG seropositivity.
Cell Death Discov
; 6(1): 138, 2020 Dec 02.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-962237
ABSTRACT
Longitudinal characterization of SARS-CoV-2 PCR testing from COVID-19 patient's nasopharynx and its juxtaposition with blood-based IgG-seroconversion diagnostic assays is critical to understanding SARS-CoV-2 infection durations. Here, we retrospectively analyze 851 SARS-CoV-2-positive patients with at least two positive PCR tests and find that 99 of these patients remain SARS-CoV-2-positive after 4 weeks from their initial diagnosis date. For the 851-patient cohort, the mean lower bound of viral RNA shedding was 17.3 days (SD 7.8), and the mean upper bound of viral RNA shedding from 668 patients transitioning to confirmed PCR-negative status was 22.7 days (SD 11.8). Among 104 patients with an IgG test result, 90 patients were seropositive to date, with mean upper bound of time to seropositivity from initial diagnosis being 37.8 days (95% CI 34.3-41.3). Our findings from juxtaposing IgG and PCR tests thus reveal that some SARS-CoV-2-positive patients are non-hospitalized and seropositive, yet actively shed viral RNA (14 of 90 patients). This study emphasizes the need for monitoring viral loads and neutralizing antibody titers in long-term non-hospitalized shedders as a means of characterizing the SARS-CoV-2 infection lifecycle.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Diagnostic study
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Language:
English
Journal:
Cell Death Discov
Year:
2020
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S41420-020-00375-y
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS