Emerging microbes & infections
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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a pandemic with increasing numbers of cases worldwide. SARS-CoV-2, the causative virus of COVID-19, is mainly transmitted through respiratory droplets or through direct and indirect contact with an infected person. The possibility of potential faecal-oral transmission was investigated in this study. ⋯ A small number of patients had strong faecal detoxification ability. The live virus in faeces could be an important source of contamination, which may lead to infection and further spread in areas with poor sanitary conditions. The findings of this study have public health significance and they should be considered when formulating disease control strategies.
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Emerg Microbes Infect · Dec 2020
Viral loads in throat and anal swabs in children infected with SARS-CoV-2.
Real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay on anal swabs was recently reported to be persistently positive even after throat testing was negative during severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. However, data about the consistent performance of RT-PCR assay on throat and anal swabs remain limited in paediatric patients. Here, we retrospectively reviewed RT-PCR-testing results of 212 paediatric patients with suspected SARS-CoV-2 infection at Wuhan Children's Hospital. ⋯ Furthermore, viral loads detected on both throat and anal swabs also showed no significant difference (P = 0.9511) and correlation (Pearson r = 0.0434, P = 0.8406), and exhibited an inconsistent kinetic change through the course of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Besides, viral loads in the throat and anal swabs were correlated with different types of immune states, immune-reactive phase, and the resolution phase/immunologic tolerance, respectively. These findings revealed that RT-PCR-testing on throat and anal swabs showed significant difference for monitoring SARS-CoV-2 infection and correlated with different immune state in paediatric patients.
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Emerg Microbes Infect · Dec 2020
LetterAnalytical comparisons of SARS-COV-2 detection by qRT-PCR and ddPCR with multiple primer/probe sets.
Different primers/probes sets have been developed all over the world for the nucleic acid detection of SARS-CoV-2 by quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) as a standard method. In our recent study, we explored the feasibility of droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) for clinical SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid detection compared with qRT-PCR using the same primer/probe sets issued by Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) targeting viral ORF1ab or N gene, which showed that ddPCR could largely minimize the false negatives reports resulted by qRT-PCR [Suo T, Liu X, Feng J, et al. ddPCR: a more sensitive and accurate tool for SARS-CoV-2 detection in low viral load specimens. medRxiv [Internet]. 2020;2020.02.29.20029439. Available from: https://medrxiv.org/content/early/2020/03/06/2020.02.29.20029439.abstract]. ⋯ Moreover, false positive reports of qRT-PCR with UCDC-N1, N2 and CCDC-N primers/probes sets were observed. In contrast, ddPCR showed significantly better performance in general for low viral load samples compared to qRT-PCR. Remarkably, the background readouts of ddPCR are relatively lower, which could efficiently reduce the production of false positive reports.
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Emerg Microbes Infect · Dec 2020
Case ReportsJamestown Canyon virus in Massachusetts: clinical case series and vector screening.
Jamestown Canyon virus (JCV) is a neuroinvasive arbovirus that is found throughout North America and increasingly recognized as a public health concern. From 2004 to 2012, an average of 1.7 confirmed cases were reported annually in the United States, whereas from 2013 to 2018 this figure increased over seventeen-fold to 29.2 cases per year. The rising number of reported human infections highlights the need for better understanding of the clinical manifestations and epidemiology of JCV. ⋯ We identified JCV in 0.6% of mosquito pools, a similar prevalence to neighboring Connecticut. We assembled the first Massachusetts JCV genome directly from a mosquito sample, finding high identity to JCV isolates collected over a 60-year period. Further studies are needed to reconcile the low vector prevalence and low rate of viral evolutionary change with the increasing number of reported cases.
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Emerg Microbes Infect · Dec 2020
Rapid Determination of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies using a bedside, point-of-Care, serological test.
Background: Several serological tests for SARS-CoV-2 have been developed or use, but most have only been validated on few samples, and none provide medical practitioners with an easy-to-use, self-contained, bedside test with high accuracy. Material and methods: Two-hundred fifty-six sera from 101 patients hospitalized with SARS-CoV-2 infection (positive RT-PCR) and 50 control sera were tested for IgM/IgG using the NG-Test IgM-IgG COVID all-in-one assay. The seroconversion dynamic was assessed by symptom onset and day of RT-PCR diagnosis. ⋯ No difference in seroconversion delay was observed regardless of whether patients received ventilation. Conclusions: The NG-test is a bedside serological assay that could serve as a complementary source of diagnostic information to RT-PCR and chest imaging. It may also be useful to monitor immunological status of medical and non-medical workers during the ongoing pandemic, and the general population after social distancing measures have eased.