We report the clinical course of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in two Japanese teenagers.
Patient 1: :A 17-year-old girl complained of a fever, sore throat, and back pain for 2 days. A nasopharyngeal swab polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test for SARS-CoV-2 revealed positivity on the 17th day after the onset of symptoms. There was no remarkable change in complete blood count (CBC) and biochemical data. The virus tested negative on day 23. Patient 2: A 14-year-old girl, the sister of patient 1, complained of cough alone, and a nasopharyngeal swab PCR test revealed positivity for SARS-CoV-2 on the first day of the onset of symptoms. Her symptoms improved 3 days later. There were no remarkable changes in CBC and biochemical data on a blood test or findings of chest X-ray screening. The virus tested negative on day 10.
Both patients exhibited mild symptoms for only a few days. Neither of the patients developed severe pneumonia or acute respiratory distress syndrome. However, it took 23 days for patient 1 and 10 days for patient 2 from the onset of the first symptoms for the virus to test negative on nasopharyngeal swab PCR testing. These cases indicate that patients with mild symptoms may spread the SARS-CoV-2 for the same duration as that of symptomatic patients. Hence, infection control among asymptomatic patients is very important to avoid human-to-human transmission in families or communities.
