[HTML][HTML] Recurrence of positive SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA in recovered COVID-19 patients during medical isolation observation

B Yuan, HQ Liu, ZR Yang, YX Chen, ZY Liu, K Zhang… - Scientific reports, 2020 - nature.com
B Yuan, HQ Liu, ZR Yang, YX Chen, ZY Liu, K Zhang, C Wang, WX Li, YW An, JC Wang…
Scientific reports, 2020nature.com
Recently, the recurrence of positive SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA in recovered COVID-19 patients
is receiving more attention. Herein we report a cohort study on the follow-up of 182
recovered patients under medical isolation observation. Twenty (10.99%) patients out of the
182 were detected to be SARS-CoV-2 RNA positive (re-positives), although none showed
any clinical symptomatic recurrence, indicating that COVID-19 responds well to treatment.
Patients aged under 18 years had higher re-positive rates than average, and none of the …
Abstract
Recently, the recurrence of positive SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA in recovered COVID-19 patients is receiving more attention. Herein we report a cohort study on the follow-up of 182 recovered patients under medical isolation observation. Twenty (10.99%) patients out of the 182 were detected to be SARS-CoV-2 RNA positive (re-positives), although none showed any clinical symptomatic recurrence, indicating that COVID-19 responds well to treatment. Patients aged under 18 years had higher re-positive rates than average, and none of the severely ill patients re-tested positive. There were no significant differences in sex between re-positives and non-re-positives. Notably, most of the re-positives turned negative in the following tests, and all of them carried antibodies against SARS-CoV-2. This indicates that they might not be infectious, although it is still important to perform regular SARS-CoV-2 RNA testing and follow-up for assessment of infectivity. The findings of this study provide information for improving the management of recovered patients, and for differentiating the follow-up of recovered patients with different risk levels.
nature.com