Articles: sars-cov-2.
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Pediatr Allergy Immunol · Jul 2020
Case ReportsTwo X-linked agammaglobulinemia patients develop pneumonia as COVID-19 manifestation but recover.
The recent SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, which has recently affected Italy since February 21, constitutes a threat to normal subjects, as the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) can manifest with a broad spectrum of clinical phenotypes ranging from asymptomatic cases to pneumonia or even death. There is evidence that older age and several comorbidities can affect the risk to develop severe pneumonia and possibly the need of mechanic ventilation in subjects infected with SARS-CoV-2. Therefore, we evaluated the outcome of SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients with inborn errors of immunity (IEI) such as X-linked agammaglobulinemia (XLA). ⋯ Our report suggests that XLA patients might present with high risk to develop pneumonia after SARS-CoV-2 infection, but can recover from infection, suggesting that B-cell response might be important, but is not strictly required to overcome the disease. However, there is a need for larger observational studies to extend these conclusions to other patients with similar genetic immune defects.
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Tocilizumab (TCZ), a monoclonal antibody against interleukin-6 (IL-6), emerged as an alternative treatment for COVID-19 patients with a risk of cytokine storms recently. In the present study, we aimed to discuss the treatment response of TCZ therapy in COVID-19 infected patients. The demographic, treatment, laboratory parameters of C-reactive protein (CRP) and IL-6 before and after TCZ therapy and clinical outcome in the 15 COVID-19 patients were retrospectively assessed. Totally 15 patients with COVID-19 were included in this study. ⋯ Serum IL-6 level tended to further spiked firstly and then decreased after TCZ therapy in 10 patients. A persistent and dramatic increase of IL-6 was observed in these four patients who failed treatment. TCZ appears to be an effective treatment option in COVID-19 patients with a risk of cytokine storms. And for these critically ill patients with elevated IL-6, the repeated dose of the TCZ is recommended.
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The current COVID-19 pandemic has impacted all the healthcare sectors all over the world. The WHO and various other health organizations have been issuing recommendations and guidelines for surgical practice and patient management during the current pandemic. ⋯ Surgical practices cannot remain suspended forever as it will have a deleterious effect on surgeons and patients. Therefore we need novel guidelines so that the surgeons can resume their general surgical practice as soon as possible.
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J Infect Public Health · Jul 2020
Persistence of SARS-CoV-2 virus RNA in feces: A case series of children.
To determine how long SARS-CoV-2 virus RNA persists in fecal specimens in children with COVID-19. ⋯ SARS-CoV-2 virus RNA persists much longer in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract than that in respiratory tract.
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SARS-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), the etiologic agent of the new lung disease COVID-19 is closely related to SARS-CoV, and together with MERS-CoV are three new human coronaviruses that emerged in the last 20 years. The COVID-19 outbreak is a rapidly evolving situation with higher transmissibility and infectivity compared with SARS and MERS. Clinical presentations range from asymptomatic or mild symptoms to severe illness. ⋯ Supportive care remains the mainstay of therapy at present, as it is still unclear how well these data can be extrapolated to SARS-CoV-2. Most of those emerging re-introduced drugs are administered to patients in the context of clinical trials. In this review, we summarize the strategies currently employed in the treatment of COVID-19.