Early antiviral treatment contributes to alleviate the severity and improve the prognosis of patients with novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Wu, Jian; Li, Wei; Shi, Xiaowei; Chen, Zhongming; Jiang, Bin; Liu, Jun; Wang, Dawei; Liu, Chengyuan; Meng, Yiling; Cui, Leilei; Yu, Jiong; Cao, Hongcui; Li, Lanjuan

BACKGROUND At present, the severity of patients infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been a focal point. METHODS To assess the factors associated with severity and prognosis of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2, we retrospectively investigated the clinical, imaging, and laboratory characteristics of confirmed 280 cases of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) from January 20 to February 20, 2020. RESULTS The median age of patients in the mild group was 37.55 years old, while that in the severe group was 63.04 years old. The proportion of patients over 65 years old in the severe group was significantly higher than that of the mild group (59.04% vs. 10.15%, P < 0.05). 85.54% of severe patients had diabetes or cardiovascular diseases, which was significantly higher than that of the mild group (51.81% vs 7.11%, P = 0.025; 33.73% vs 3.05%, P = 0.042). Patients in the mild group experienced earlier initiation of antiviral treatment (1.19 ± 0.45 vs 2.65 ± 1.06 days in the severe group, P < 0.001). Our study showed that comorbidity, time from illness onset to antiviral, and age >=65 were three major risk factors for COVID-19 progression, while comorbidity and time from illness onset to antiviral were two major risk factors for COVID-19 recovery. CONCLUSIONS The elderly and patients with underlying diseases are more likely to experience a severe progression of COVID-19. It is recommended that timely antiviral treatment should be initiated to slow the disease progression and improve the prognosis.