Asymptomatic Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Infection in a Rehabilitation Facility: Evolution of the Presence of Nasopharyngeal SARS-CoV-2 and Serological Antibody Responses. (16th October 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Harris, Benjamin H L; Zuhair, Mohamed; Di Giovannantonio, Matteo; Rosadas, Carolina; Khan, Maryam; Short, Charlotte-Eve; Thaventhiran, Thilipan; Quinlan, Rachael; Taylor, Andrew; Calvez, Ronan; Taylor, Graham P; Tedder, Richard S; McClure, Myra O; Fertleman, Michael
• Is Part Of: Journal of infectious diseases. Volume 223:Number 2(2021)
• Page Start: 192
• Page End: 196
• Publication Date: 2020-10-16
• Subjects: COVID-19 -- SARS-CoV-2 -- asymptomatic -- anti-RBD -- SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain (RBD) -- antibodies to nucleoprotein -- anti-NP -- Imperial Hybrid DABA; Communicable diseases -- Periodicals; Diseases -- Causes and theories of causation -- Periodicals; Medicine -- Periodicals; Communicable Diseases -- Periodicals; Electronic journals; 616.9
• DOI: 10.1093/infdis/jiaa610
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0022-1899

Abstract

Abstract: At the start of the UK coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic, this rare point prevalence study revealed that one-third of patients (15 of 45) in a London inpatient rehabilitation unit were found to be infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) but asymptomatic. We report on 8 patients in detail, including their clinical stability, the evolution of their nasopharyngeal viral reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) burden, and their antibody levels over time, revealing the infection dynamics by RT-PCR and serology during the acute phase. Notably, a novel serological test for antibodies against the receptor binding domain of SARS-CoV-2 showed that 100% of our asymptomatic cohort remained seropositive 3—6 weeks after diagnosis.