New Microbes New Infect. 2020 Aug 20:100748. doi: 10.1016/j.nmni.2020.100748. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak started in December 2019 and rapidly spread around the globe as a major health threat. Several reports on re-positive cases subsequent to discharge from hospitals caught our attention. We aimed to highlight real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) positivity re-detection after discharge from the isolation, with special consideration on possible reasons behind it. We found that re-positive RT-qPCR assays for SARS-CoV-2 after prior negative Results might be attributed to false-negative laboratory results and prolonged viral shedding, rather than re-infection. These findings are encouraging and should be validated in a larger cohort.
PMID:32843984 | PMC:PMC7439804 | DOI:10.1016/j.nmni.2020.100748