Prolonged shedding of viable <scp>SARS‐CoV</scp> ‐2 in immunocompromised patients with haematological malignancies: A prospective study
Takaya Ichikawa, Tomokazu Tamura, Mutsumi Takahata, Takashi Ishio, Makoto Ibata, Ikumi Kasahara, Koichiro Minauchi, Satoshi Yamamoto, Takanori Teshima, Takasuke Fukuhara
Abstract
Summary Prolonged SARS‐CoV‐2 infection in immunocompromised individuals has been scattered, but the details remain unclear. We conducted a prospective study with 26 COVID‐19 patients with haematological malignancies to determine viral shedding kinetics and characteristics. We obtained nasopharyngeal swabs from the patients 21–28 days post‐onset for a PCR test and performed virus isolation from the PCR‐positive samples. A viable virus was detected in five patients (19.2%), all of whom had malignant lymphoma. Those patients had significantly lower CD4 + T‐cell counts than the PCR‐negative patients. A comparison of previous chemotherapy showed that anti‐CD20 antibodies and bendamustine may be risk factors for prolonged viral shedding.