The outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) remains a major public health emergency of international concern, resulting in a significant global disease burden. By September 1, 2022, there have been more than 600 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, and more than 6.4 million people globally have died following infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (1). The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 spread rapidly across the world, out-competing former variants soon after it was first detected in November 2021 (2).As the patients recovering from COVID-19 continue to increase, long-term symptoms of COVID-19 (long COVID) after discharge from hospital have been widely reported (3-7). Long COVID is defined as the presence of signs and symptoms that develop during or after an infection consistent with COVID-19 and that continue for more than 12 weeks (8). These symptoms include fatigue, a cough, myalgia, shortness of breath, loss of taste or smell, headaches, and dyspnea and they affect the neurological, nervous, respiratory, cardiovascular, and digestive systems (3,5,9,10). One early study found that of patients who had recovered from acute COVID-19, 87.4% reported persistence of at least one symptom, and fatigue and dyspnea in particular, at 1 month follow-up after discharge (9). As follow-up studies continue to report, there are significant differences in the prevalence of longterm symptoms among patients with COVID-19 after discharge (7,11-14) (Supplemental Table S1, https:// www.globalhealthmedicine.com/site/supplementaldata. html?ID=61). The main reason may be that new variants appear to cause less severe acute illness than previous strains (2). However, the potential for large numbers of patients experiencing long COVID is a major concern, and healthcare and workforce planners rapidly need information to appropriately allocate resources.At the peak of the first wave of the outbreak in Shenzhen in 2022, a large number of asymptomatic and mild cases involving Omicron emerged. As described here, a cohort study based on a telephone interview collected data on the sequelae of an Omicron infection at 3 months. Results were compared to a follow-up (P1)
The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) pandemic has caused a resurgence of tuberculosis (TB), thus increasing morbidity and mortality. Moreover, HIV-TB coinfection leads to difficulties in diagnosis. Sputum smear microscopy, mycobacterial culture and GeneXpert MTB/RIF assays are generally endorsed to detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) in HIV-TB coinfection. However, these methods cannot diagnose TB in an accurate and timely manner, thus increasing the rates of HIV-associated morbidity and mortality in patients with TB. Hence, a considerable need exists for better diagnostic tools for patients with HIV-TB coinfection. Metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) is a novel detection platform widely used to assess infectious disease, antimicrobial resistance, the microbiome and human host gene expression. Herein, we summarize the advantages of mNGS for infectious disease diagnostics. We then assess the efficiency of mNGS in the detection of M. tuberculosis in different specimens and several cases of HIV-TB coinfection. We conclude that mNGS is an acceptable diagnostic method for HIV-TB coinfection, although limited research is available.
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