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Repeated certificate of SARS-CoV-2 virus by RT-PCR method in a patient with COVID-19

Publication at First Faculty of Medicine, Third Faculty of Medicine |
2020

Abstract

At the end of 2019, the first cases of pneumonia caused by a newly identified coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2 and a disease caused by it as COVID-19 were recorded in Wuhan, China. Subsequently, the disease spread to most regions of the planet, a condition identified by the World Health Organization as a pandemic.

It is a respiratory disease transmitted mainly by the droplet route and its incubation period is stated between 3 and 14 days. SARS-CoV-2 behaves somewhat differently from other "common" respiratory viruses.

The infection takes place in a wide range of possible responses, from asymptomatic infection through manifest (invasive) disease to fatal. The documented case report (one of many) presents a confirmed case of COVID-19, whose nasopharyngeal swab test for SARS-CoV-2 RNA was initially negative during convalescence and subsequently repeatedly positive for direct virus detection by PCR.

This case emphasizes the importance of active surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 RNA to assess infectivity.