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Silent disease and loss of taste and smell are common manifestations of SARS-COV-2 infection in a quarantine facility: Saudi Arabia
OBJECTIVES: In this study, we aimed to study the clinical presentations, and viral clearance of SARS-COV-2 positive quarantined individuals. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: Governmental- designated facility in the eastern province, Saudi Arabia. PARTICIPANTS: 128 laboratory-confirmed COVID-1...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7598518/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33125433 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0241258 |
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author | Alshami, Alanoud Alattas, Rabab Anan, Hadeel Alhalimi, Abdulbary Alfaraj, Ahmed Al Qahtani, Hadi |
author_facet | Alshami, Alanoud Alattas, Rabab Anan, Hadeel Alhalimi, Abdulbary Alfaraj, Ahmed Al Qahtani, Hadi |
author_sort | Alshami, Alanoud |
collection | PubMed |
description | OBJECTIVES: In this study, we aimed to study the clinical presentations, and viral clearance of SARS-COV-2 positive quarantined individuals. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: Governmental- designated facility in the eastern province, Saudi Arabia. PARTICIPANTS: 128 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 quarantined individuals who had a history of travel abroad in the last 14 days before the quarantine or were in direct contact with laboratory-confirmed cases. The study was from March 18th-till April 16th. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY MEASURES: The clinical presentation, prevalence of asymptomatic carriers among SARS-COV-2 positive quarantined subjects, and the difference between virus clearance among symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals. RESULTS: Sixty-nine of the 128 residents (54%) were completely asymptomatic until the end of the study. The remaining 59 residents (46%) had only mild symptoms. The most common symptom was a sudden loss of smell and taste, accounting for 47.5%. The median time to virus clearance was significantly different between the two groups. Symptomatic residents cleared the virus at a median of 17 days (95% CI, 12.4–21.6) from the first positive PCR vs. 11days (95% CI, 8.7–13.3) in the asymptomatic group (P = 0.011). False-negative test results occurred in 18.8% of the total residents and false-positive results in 3%. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of asymptomatic carriers among quarantined travelers and those identified by contact tracing is high in our study. Therefore, testing, tracing, and isolating travelers and contacts of laboratory-confirmed cases, regardless of symptoms, were very effective measures for early disease identification and containment. Loss of taste and smell were the most common presentations in our mild symptomatic residents and should be used as a screening tool for COVID-19. The persistent positive PCR beyond 14 days observed in the mild symptomatic residents despite being symptoms free, warrant further studies to determine its implications on disease spread and control. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7598518 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-75985182020-11-03 Silent disease and loss of taste and smell are common manifestations of SARS-COV-2 infection in a quarantine facility: Saudi Arabia Alshami, Alanoud Alattas, Rabab Anan, Hadeel Alhalimi, Abdulbary Alfaraj, Ahmed Al Qahtani, Hadi PLoS One Research Article OBJECTIVES: In this study, we aimed to study the clinical presentations, and viral clearance of SARS-COV-2 positive quarantined individuals. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: Governmental- designated facility in the eastern province, Saudi Arabia. PARTICIPANTS: 128 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 quarantined individuals who had a history of travel abroad in the last 14 days before the quarantine or were in direct contact with laboratory-confirmed cases. The study was from March 18th-till April 16th. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY MEASURES: The clinical presentation, prevalence of asymptomatic carriers among SARS-COV-2 positive quarantined subjects, and the difference between virus clearance among symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals. RESULTS: Sixty-nine of the 128 residents (54%) were completely asymptomatic until the end of the study. The remaining 59 residents (46%) had only mild symptoms. The most common symptom was a sudden loss of smell and taste, accounting for 47.5%. The median time to virus clearance was significantly different between the two groups. Symptomatic residents cleared the virus at a median of 17 days (95% CI, 12.4–21.6) from the first positive PCR vs. 11days (95% CI, 8.7–13.3) in the asymptomatic group (P = 0.011). False-negative test results occurred in 18.8% of the total residents and false-positive results in 3%. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of asymptomatic carriers among quarantined travelers and those identified by contact tracing is high in our study. Therefore, testing, tracing, and isolating travelers and contacts of laboratory-confirmed cases, regardless of symptoms, were very effective measures for early disease identification and containment. Loss of taste and smell were the most common presentations in our mild symptomatic residents and should be used as a screening tool for COVID-19. The persistent positive PCR beyond 14 days observed in the mild symptomatic residents despite being symptoms free, warrant further studies to determine its implications on disease spread and control. Public Library of Science 2020-10-30 /pmc/articles/PMC7598518/ /pubmed/33125433 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0241258 Text en © 2020 Alshami et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Alshami, Alanoud Alattas, Rabab Anan, Hadeel Alhalimi, Abdulbary Alfaraj, Ahmed Al Qahtani, Hadi Silent disease and loss of taste and smell are common manifestations of SARS-COV-2 infection in a quarantine facility: Saudi Arabia |
title | Silent disease and loss of taste and smell are common manifestations of SARS-COV-2 infection in a quarantine facility: Saudi Arabia |
title_full | Silent disease and loss of taste and smell are common manifestations of SARS-COV-2 infection in a quarantine facility: Saudi Arabia |
title_fullStr | Silent disease and loss of taste and smell are common manifestations of SARS-COV-2 infection in a quarantine facility: Saudi Arabia |
title_full_unstemmed | Silent disease and loss of taste and smell are common manifestations of SARS-COV-2 infection in a quarantine facility: Saudi Arabia |
title_short | Silent disease and loss of taste and smell are common manifestations of SARS-COV-2 infection in a quarantine facility: Saudi Arabia |
title_sort | silent disease and loss of taste and smell are common manifestations of sars-cov-2 infection in a quarantine facility: saudi arabia |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7598518/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33125433 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0241258 |
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