Throughout the pandemic, the term, viral load, has been changing as doctors and researchers try to determine its importance and place in understanding COVID-19 and beyond.
Lizzy Hastie, MD, reminds doctors that there are a number of benefits to knowing patients’ viral loads, including transmissibility, prognosis, treatment eligibility and aids in studying investigational therapies.
Still, the evidence we currently have is confusing, explained Hastie, who is a first-year infectious disease fellow at UCSD. “The data we have now is quite conflicting about the importance of viral load. Some studies have shown that it correlates quite well with outcomes, others have not,” Hastie said. “Some have shown correlations with age and other risk factors and symptoms, so we really wanted to get our heads around that.”
Hastie and her co-investigators wanted to analyze a new test technology, Droplet Digital PCR, and explore associations between SARS-CoV-2 viral load and patient symptoms, demographics, and clinical outcomes.
Their study was presented as a poster, “Association between SARS-CoV-2 viral load and patient symptoms and clinical outcomes using Droplet Digital PCR,” at IDWeek 2022, held from 19-23 October 2022 in Washington, DC.
For their findings, the researchers confirmed that a higher viral load was predictive of symptomatic disease and in-hospital mortality. These findings suggest that early viral control may prevent disease progression.
Hastie sat down with Contagion who offered some insight into their study, including the methodology, technology and its results.