Full Text

Turn on search term navigation

© 2022. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

Introduction

Patients with COVID‐19 may present different viral loads levels. However, the relationship between viral load and disease severity in COVID‐19 is still unknown. Therefore, this study aimed to systematically review the association between SARS‐CoV‐2 viral load and COVID‐19 severity.

Methods

The relevant studies using the keywords of “COVID‐19” and “viral load” were searched in the databases of PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, and Web of Science. A two‐step title/abstract screening process was carried out and the eligible studies were included in the study.

Results

Thirty‐four studies were included from the initial 1015 records. The vast majority of studies have utilized real‐time reverse transcription‐polymerase chain reaction of the nasopharyngeal/respiratory swabs to report viral load. Viral loads were commonly reported either as cycle threshold (Ct) or log10 RNA copies/ml.

Conclusion

The results were inconclusive about the relationship between COVID‐19 severity and viral load, as a similar number of studies either approved or opposed this hypothesis. However, the studies denote the direct relationship between older age and higher SARS‐CoV‐2 viral load, which is a known risk factor for COVID‐19 mortality. The higher viral load in older patients may serve as a mechanism for any possible relationships between COVID‐19 viral load and disease severity. There was a positive correlation between SARS‐CoV‐2 viral load and its transmissibility. Nonetheless, further studies are recommended to precisely characterize this matter.

Details

Title
The relationship between COVID‐19 viral load and disease severity: A systematic review
Author
Dadras, Omid 1 ; Afsahi, Amir M 2 ; Pashaei, Zahra 3 ; Mojdeganlou, Hengameh 4 ; Karimi, Amirali 5 ; Habibi, Pedram 3 ; Barzegary, Alireza 6 ; Amirata Fakhfouri 6 ; Mirzapour, Pegah 3 ; Janfaza, Nazanin 7 ; Dehghani, Soheil 5 ; Afroughi, Fatemeh 8 ; Dashti, Mohsen 9 ; Khodaei, Sepideh 3 ; Mehraeen, Esmaeil 10   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Voltarelli, Fabricio 11 ; Jean‐Marc Sabatier 12 ; SeyedAlinaghi, SeyedAhmad 3   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

 The Excellent Center for Dengue and Community Public Health (EC for DACH), School of Public Health, Walailak University, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand 
 Department of Radiology, School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego (UCSD), La Jolla, California, USA 
 Iranian Research Center for HIV/AIDS, Iranian Institute for Reduction of High‐Risk Behaviors, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 
 Department of Pathology, Urmia University of Medical Sciences, Urmia, Iran 
 School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 
 School of Medicine, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran 
 Internal Medicine Department, Imam Khomeini Hospital Complex, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 
 School of Medicine, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran; Pars Hospital, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 
 Department of Radiology, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran 
10  Department of Health Information Technology, Khalkhal University of Medical Sciences, Khalkhal, Iran 
11  Graduation Program of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Federal University of Mato Grosso, Cuiabá, Brazil 
12  Université Aix‐Marseille, Institut deNeuro‐physiopathologie (INP), Marseille, France 
Section
REVIEW ARTICLES
Publication year
2022
Publication date
Mar 2022
Publisher
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
e-ISSN
20504527
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2632588592
Copyright
© 2022. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.