A systematic review of re-detectable positive virus nucleic acid among COVID-19 patients in recovery phase

Zhiru Gao; Yinghui Xu; Ye Guo; Dongsheng Xu; Li Zhang; Xu Wang; Chao Sun; Shi Qiu; Kewei Ma

doi:10.1016/j.meegid.2020.104494

A systematic review of re-detectable positive virus nucleic acid among COVID-19 patients in recovery phase

Infect Genet Evol. 2020 Nov:85:104494. doi: 10.1016/j.meegid.2020.104494. Epub 2020 Aug 5.

Authors

Zhiru Gao¹, Yinghui Xu¹, Ye Guo¹, Dongsheng Xu¹, Li Zhang², Xu Wang¹, Chao Sun¹, Shi Qiu¹, Kewei Ma³

Affiliations

¹ Cancer Center, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin 130021, China.
² Department of Radiology, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin 130021, China.
³ Cancer Center, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin 130021, China. Electronic address: makw@jlu.edu.cn.

Abstract

A large number of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients have been cured and discharged due to timely and effective treatments. While some discharged patients have been found re-positive nucleic acid again in the recovery phase. Until now, there is still a great challenge to its infectivity and the specific potential mechanism which needs further discussion. However, more intensive attention should be paid to the prognosis of recovered patients. In this review, we mainly focus on the characteristics, potential reasons, infectivity, and outcomes of re-detectable positive patients, thereby providing some novel insights into the cognition of COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; Characteristic; Outcome; Recovered patients; SARS-CoV-2.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Systematic Review

MeSH terms

COVID-19 / virology*
COVID-19 Drug Treatment
Humans
Patient Discharge
Prognosis
RNA, Viral / genetics*
Recovery of Function
SARS-CoV-2 / genetics
SARS-CoV-2 / pathogenicity*
Virus Latency

Substances

RNA, Viral