geoffrey modest medical blogs

  A recent Letter to the Editor assessed the time-course of culturable, viable SARS-CoV-2 virus in hospitalized patients with Covid-19 in South Korea (see  covid culturable virus nejm2021   in dropbox, or DOI: 10.1056/NEJMc2027040 )     Details:  --21 patients, representing all patients with PCR-confirmed Covid-19 infections in Chung-Ang University Hospital in Seoul, South Korea between February and June 2020  --mean age 62, 76% men  --comorbidities: none 7 (33%), hypertension 10 (48%), diabetes 3 (14%), chronic lung disease 2 (10%), immunocompromise 1 (5%)  -- 15 (71%) had pneumonia, 8 (38%) on supplemental oxygen, 5 (24%) URI symptoms, 1 (5%) asymptomatic  --lab findings: all had normal WBC, hemoglobin, platelet,   total bilirubin, and CRP  --treatments: 33% conservative care, 9 (43%) hydroxychloroquine for median 10 days, lopinavir/ritonavir  9 (43%)  median 8 days  --Median SOFA score (Sequential Or...

2 recent articles suggest that asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection is quite common ------------------------------------- In a replication of the Shakleton Antarctic exploration, a cruise ship meandered through his excursion route, this time hampered by rampant  SARS-CoV-2 infection  (though i believe that Shakleton was not exactly on a cruise ship.  interesting that both adventures did not go exactly as planned...). but the scientific plus of this  SARS-CoV-2 study is that all passengers and crew members were tested by PCR for the virus, so it is a study of an all-inclusive group (see  covid asx carrier ship thorax2020  in dropbox or doi:10.1136/thoraxjnl-2020-215091) Details: --217 passengers and crew on a cruise ship, 128 (59%) tested positive for  SARS-CoV-2: 128 passengers and 95 crew --the trip started in Argentina for a 21-day excursion of the Antarctic Peninsua, departing mid-March --all pateints and crew were screened for Covid-19 symptoms a...