Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in neonates born to mothers or relatives with COVID-19

BACKGROUND

In December 2019, in Wuhan, China, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was emerged due to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). It seems that children and neonates, similar to adult and elderly individuals, are at risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, adequate data are not available about neonates infected with SARS-CoV-2.

METHODS

This study evaluated the presence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in neonates born to mothers or relatives with COVID-19. This cross-sectional study was performed on 25,044 consecutive Iranian participants in Tehran, Iran, from January 2020 to August 2020. Viral ribonucleic acid (RNA) was extracted from 500 µl of the oropharyngeal and nasopharyngeal specimens of the participants. The genomic RNA of SARS-CoV-2 was detected by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay.

RESULTS

Out of all participants, 98 (0.40%) cases were neonates born to mothers or relatives with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Therefore, the current study was performed on these neonates. Out of 98 studied neonates, 6 (6.1%) cases had positive PCR results for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Moreover, among 98 studied neonates' mothers, 25 (25.5%) cases had positive PCR results for SARS-CoV-2 infection.

CONCLUSION

The findings of this study demonstrated that the rate of COVID-19 in neonates born to mothers or relatives with SARS-CoV-2 infection in the Iranian population is about 6.1%.

Occult HCV and occult HBV coinfection in Iranian human immunodeficiency virus-infected individuals

The presence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) genome in liver biopsy or peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) specimens in the absence of detectable HCV-RNA in plasma of the people with or without anti-HCV antibodies has defined as occult HCV infection (OCI), whereas occult hepatitis B virus infection (OBI) is detection of hepatitis B virus (HBV) genome in the absence of traceable hepatitis B surface antigen in the plasma samples of patients. The purpose of this study is to determine the presence of OBI and OCI in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected individuals. In this cross-sectional research, 190 Iranian HIV-infected individuals were enrolled from September 2015 to February 2019. All participants were tested regarding various serological markers for HCV and HBV infections. Viral RNA and DNA were extracted from plasma and PBMC specimens, and the presence of HCV-RNA in plasma and PBMC samples was tested using reverse transcriptase-nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR), HBV viral load was determined in plasma samples using COBAS TaqMan 48 Kit, and also the presence of the HBV-DNA in PBMC samples was tested by real-time PCR. In this study, the prevalence of OBI and OCI in HIV-infected individuals was 3.1% and 11.4%, respectively. The genotypes of HCV in the patients with OCI were as follows: 57.1% were infected with subtype 3a, 35.7% were infected with subtype 1a, and 7.1% was infected with subtype 1b. It is noteworthy that in this study, two patients (1.1%) had OCI/OBI coinfections. The present study revealed that 1.1% of Iranian HIV-infected individuals had OBI and OCI at the same time. Therefore, it seems that designing prospective surveys to determine the presence of this coinfection in HIV-infected individuals is informative.

Prevalence of HCV and/or HBV coinfection in Iranian HIV-infected patients

Aim: HIV-infected patients risk coinfection with HBV and HCV. This study aimed to investigate molecular epidemiology of HBV and HCV coinfection in Iranian HIV-infected individuals. Materials & methods: In this cross-sectional study, serological markers of HBV and HCV infection (hepatitis B surface antigen [HBsAg], hepatitis B e-antigen [HBeAg], hepatitis B e-antibody [HBeAb] and hepatitis B core antibody [HBcAb]) and anti-HCV antibodies [anti-HCV Abs] were tested in 198 Iranian HIV-infected patients. From plasma, HBV viral load was determined using COBAS TaqMan 48, and HCV-RNA was detected by reverse transcriptase-nested PCR. Results: 85 out of 198 (42.9%) patients were anti-HCV Ab positive and 42/198 (21.2%) had detectable HCV-RNA. Eight (4.0%) had traceable HBV-DNA. All these patients were infected by HBV genotype D. 55 (27.8%) were HBcAb positive. Nine (4.4%) were HBsAg and anti-HCV Ab positive. Conclusion: None were HIV-RNA/HCV-RNA/HBV-DNA positive, 21.2% were HIV-RNA/HCV-RNA positive and 4.0% were HIV-RNA/HBV-DNA positive. Therefore, studies on diagnosing these infections in HIV-infected individuals may be valuable.