Período de incubação da doença de COVID-19 (Ann Intern Med. 2020;10:M20-0504.)

Esta pesquisa com pacientes chineses (exceto de Wuhan) acometidos pela COVID-19, publicado pela Annals of Internal Medicine, evidenciou que o período médio de incubação do COVID-19 é aproximadamente 5 dias, semelhante ao SARS. 

O período atual de monitoramento ativo recomendado pelos Centros dos EUA para Controle e Prevenção de Doenças dos Estados Unidos de 14 dias é suportado pelas evidências desse artigo. 

A identificação do período de incubação por COVID-19 é importante para auxiliar nas ações e políticas de saúde pública, incluindo monitoramento, vigilância, controle e modelagem dos dados.

A pesquisa foi realizada no período entre 4 de janeiro e 24 de fevereiro de 2020 por Lauer e colaboradores. Os participantes foram chineses, exceção de pessoas da província de Hubei, com infecção confirmada por SARS-CoV-2. 

Leia o artigo pelo link:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7081172/

Lauer SA, Grantz KH, Bi Q, Jones FK, Zheng Q, Meredith HR, Azman AS, Reich NG, Lessler J. The Incubation Period of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) From Publicly Reported Confirmed Cases: Estimation and Application. Ann Intern Med. 2020 Mar 10:M20-0504.

Abstract
Background: A novel human coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was identified in China in December 2019. There is limited support for many of its key epidemiologic features, including the incubation period for clinical disease (coronavirus disease 2019 [COVID-19]), which has important implications for surveillance and control activities.
Objective: To estimate the length of the incubation period of COVID-19 and describe its public health implications.
Design: Pooled analysis of confirmed COVID-19 cases reported between 4 January 2020 and 24 February 2020.
Setting: News reports and press releases from 50 provinces, regions, and countries outside Wuhan, Hubei province, China.
Participants: Persons with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection outside Hubei province, China.
Measurements: Patient demographic characteristics and dates and times of possible exposure, symptom onset, fever onset, and hospitalization.
Results: There were 181 confirmed cases with identifiable exposure and symptom onset windows to estimate the incubation period of COVID-19. The median incubation period was estimated to be 5.1 days (95% CI, 4.5 to 5.8 days), and 97.5% of those who develop symptoms will do so within 11.5 days (CI, 8.2 to 15.6 days) of infection. These estimates imply that, under conservative assumptions, 101 out of every 10 000 cases (99th percentile, 482) will develop symptoms after 14 days of active monitoring or quarantine.
Limitation: Publicly reported cases may overrepresent severe cases, the incubation period for which may differ from that of mild cases.
Conclusion: This work provides additional evidence for a median incubation period for COVID-19 of approximately 5 days, similar to SARS. Our results support current proposals for the length of quarantine or active monitoring of persons potentially exposed to SARS-CoV-2, although longer monitoring periods might be justified in extreme cases.