Eosinophil: A Nonnegligible Predictor in COVID-19 Re-Positive Patients.

Although vaccine resources are being distributed worldwide, insufficient vaccine production remains a major obstacle to herd immunity. In such an environment, the cases of re-positive occurred frequently, and there is a big controversy regarding the cause of re-positive episodes and the infectivity of re-positive cases. In this case-control study, we tracked 39 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 from the Jiaodong Peninsula area of China, of which 7 patients tested re-positive. We compared the sex distribution, age, comorbidities, and clinical laboratory results between normal patients and re-positive patients, and analysed the correlation between the significantly different indicators and the re-positive. Re-positive patients displayed a lower level of serum creatinine (63.38 ± 4.94 U/L vs. 86.82 ± 16.98 U/L; P =0.014) and lower albumin (34.70 ± 5.46 g/L vs. 41.24 ± 5.44 g/L, P =0.039) at the time of initial diagnosis. In addition, two positive phases and the middle negative phase in re-positive patients with significantly different eosinophil counts (0.005 ± 0.005 × 109/L; 0.103 ± 0.033 × 109/L; 0.007 ± 0.115 × 109/L; Normal range: 0.02-0.52 × 109/L). The level of eosinophils in peripheral blood can be used as a marker to predict re-positive in patients who once had COVID-19.

Epidemiology Characteristics of Human Coxsackievirus A16 and Enterovirus 71 Circulating in Linyi, China, from 2009 to 2017.

In China, a rapid expansion of hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) outbreaks has occurred since 2004, and HFMD has become an important issue in China. There are more than 20 types of enterovirus causing HFMD, of which coxsackievirus A16 (CA16) and enterovirus 71 (EV71) are the most common. This study aimed to analyze the epidemiological characteristics of HFMD caused by EV71 and CA16 in Linyi, Shandong province, China, from 2009 to 2017. The stool specimens and throat samples of 5,324 patients with HFMD were obtained for nucleic acid detection of enterovirus. A total of 4,040 HFMD cases were caused by viral pathogens. Of these, 1,706 cases were positive for EV71 and 1,266 were positive for CA16. These 2 virus strains appeared alternately in Linyi city. The incidence of EV71-positive and CA16-positive cases was highest in children aged 0-5 years, with male patients being predominant. This outbreak of HMFD caused by EV71 and CA16 mainly occurred between April and July and appeared alternately between the years 2011 and 2017. These results demonstrated that the epidemiological analysis of EV71 and CA16 can provide a scientific basis for the prevention and treatment of the disease.