Earliest cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) identified in solid organ transplant recipients in the United States

Abstract

With the rapidly expanding pandemic of SARS-CoV-2, there is concern that solid organ transplant recipients will be particularly vulnerable to infection and may experience a more severe clinical course. We report four cases of COVID-19 in solid organ transplant recipients including recipients of kidney, liver, lung, and heart transplants. We describe each patient's medical history including transplantation history, their clinical presentation and workup, and their course from diagnosis to either hospital discharge or to improvement in symptoms. These reports demonstrate a range of symptoms, clinical severity, and disease course in solid organ transplant recipients with COVID-19, including two hospitalized patients and two patients managed entirely in the outpatient setting.

Keywords: clinical research/practice; infection and infectious agents - viral; infectious disease; lung disease: infectious; organ transplantation in general; outpatient care.