ArticleScientific reports2024
The association between baseline viral load and long-term risk in patients with COVID-19 in Hong Kong: a territory-wide study.
Article in Scientific reports, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Challenges and Opportunities for Post-COVID Pulmonary Disease: A Focused Review of Immunomodulation.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
14 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
COVID-19 can increase the long-term risk of multiorgan dysfunction. Few studies investigated the long-term risk in Asian populations or investigated the association between viral load and long-term risk. We aimed to investigate the post-discharge rates of hospitalization and association with baseline viral load in all patients with COVID-19 in Hong Kong. This was a population-based cohort study included all patients with a positive RT-PCR test for SARS-CoV-2 in Hong Kong between January 1st 2020 and August 30th 2020, routinely admitted to public health care facilities for isolation and treatment. Viral Ct values were available in 3433 (85%) of patients. Outcomes of interest included death, cause-specific hospitalizations, and initiation of medication from the Hospital Authority's territory-wide electronic health records from the Clinical Data Analysis and Reporting System. In total, 4054 people in Hong Kong tested positive for COVID-19 and were admitted to a public health care facility, of whom 167 (4.1%) were admitted to ICU. During a median follow-up time of 251 (interquartile range 240-279) days, 408 (11.9%) were hospitalized for any reason and 16 (0.5%) patients died. After discharge, patients were most often readmitted for respiratory reasons, followed by gastro-intestinal reasons. A higher viral load (lower RT-PCR Ct values) was associated with a higher likelihood of death (Hazard ratio [HR] 5.86, 95% Confidence interval [CI] 2.57-13.33), hospitalization (HR 1.22, 95%CI 1.08-1.39) or hospitalization for cardiovascular disease (HR 12.78, 95%CI 3.67-44.48). Patients with higher viral loads more likely started ACE-inhibitors (HR 1.37, 95%CI 1.12-1.68) and non-opioid analgesics (HR 1.01, 95%CI 1.01-1.23). In a relatively mild COVID-19 population from Hong Kong, the post-acute risk of complications was substantial. Our results highlight that higher viral load predict post-acute complications in patients with relatively mild disease.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.