Internal medicine

Medical microbiology

Virus

Disease

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Antibiotics

Infectious disease (medical specialty)

Biology

Microbiology

Viral culture

Viral load

Intensive care medicine

Virology

Immunology

Isolation (microbiology)

Hydroxychloroquine

Azithromycin

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)

Medicine

European Journal of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases

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.

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