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. 2020 Jun;39(6):1059-1061.
doi: 10.1007/s10096-020-03913-9. Epub 2020 Apr 27.

Viral RNA load as determined by cell culture as a management tool for discharge of SARS-CoV-2 patients from infectious disease wards

Bernard La Scola  1   2 , Marion Le Bideau  3   4 , Julien Andreani  3   4 , Van Thuan Hoang  3   5   6 , Clio Grimaldier  3   4 , Philippe Colson  3   4 , Philippe Gautret  3   5 , Didier Raoult  7   8
Affiliations

Viral RNA load as determined by cell culture as a management tool for discharge of SARS-CoV-2 patients from infectious disease wards

Bernard La Scola et al. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis. 2020 Jun.

Abstract

In a preliminary clinical study, we observed that the combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin was effective against SARS-CoV-2 by shortening the duration of viral load in Covid-19 patients. It is of paramount importance to define when a treated patient can be considered as no longer contagious. Correlation between successful isolation of virus in cell culture and Ct value of quantitative RT-PCR targeting E gene suggests that patients with Ct above 33-34 using our RT-PCR system are not contagious and thus can be discharged from hospital care or strict confinement for non-hospitalized patients.

Keywords: Co-culture; Correlation; Covid-19; RT-PCR; SARS-CoV2; Viral load.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Percentage of positive viral culture of SARS-CoV-2 PCR-positive nasopharyngeal samples from Covid-19 patients, according to Ct value (plain line). The dashed curve indicates the polynomial regression curve
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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