Conundrum of re-positives COVID-19 cases: A Systematic review of Case reports and Case series

Abstract Introduction There have been case reports and case series published for RT PCR positive COVID - 19 cases that became RT PCR negative but subsequently became RT PCR positive after a symptom free interval following a negative RT PCR test. These cases may include re-positive, reactivated and re-infection cases. Hence, the systematic review to summarize and synthesize evidence from all available case series and case reports published was undertaken.Methodology The systematic review of case series and case reports was registered with Prospero with registration number CRD42020210446. PRISMA guidelines were followed for conducting the systematic review. Studies published in English language only were considered for the Systematic Review. Inclusion criteria for studies included case reports and case series which have documented cases of positive RT-PCR after a period of improvement or negative RT PCR. Reviews, opinions and animal studies were excluded. Case reports which described clinical presentation or manifestations of COVID-19 cases were also excluded from the studies. Methodological quality was assessed using modified Murad scale.Results A total of 30 case reports/case series were included in the study, wherein a total of 219 cases were included. In re-positive cases, the age range varied from 10 months to 91 years. The pooled proportion using random effects was 12% with 95% CI from 09% to 15%. Among the re-positives, a total of 57 cases (26%) of the cases had co-morbidities. A total of 51 (23.3%) and 17 (7.8%) re-positive cases had been treated with antivirals and corticosteroids respectively. Among the symptomatic cases, the disease severity was lesser as compared to the initial episode of illness. Only a few studies have confirmed the presence of antibodies after the first episode. The few studies that had done contact tracing of re-positives did not find any positive cases among those in contact with re-positives.Conclusion This systematic review presents the review of all the case reports and case series on recurrence of COVID 19 disease. Although limited evidence has been generated due to paucity of such studies and shortcomings in the study designs of case reports and case-series, nonetheless, the evidence generated can still be used in making clinical decisions and framing policy guidelines.

Medienart:

Preprint

Erscheinungsjahr:

2022

Erschienen:

2022

Enthalten in:

bioRxiv.org - (2022) vom: 04. Dez. Zur Gesamtaufnahme - year:2022

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Yadav, Arun Kumar [VerfasserIn]
Ghosh, Subhadeep [VerfasserIn]
Dubey, Sudhir [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext [lizenzpflichtig]
Volltext [kostenfrei]

Themen:

570
Biology

doi:

10.1101/2020.12.10.20223990

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

XBI019527640