A 44-year-old Bavarian woman with allergic asthma consulted community medical practice at the end of February 2020 with febrile airway infection and breathing difficulties after visiting carnival-related event. She was first assumed to have seasonal influenza and treated symptomatically with antipyretics, and on day 4 empirical antimicrobial treatment was initiated on the assumption of community-acquired pneumonia. Six days after the onset of her symptoms, nucleic acid amplification of material from nasopharyngeal swab demonstrated the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. At the time of hospital admission on day 7, the patient had marked dyspnea at rest (respiration rate: 30 breaths per minute; oxygen saturation: 90% in ambient air) and chest radiograph showed atypical infiltration of both lungs ( Figure 1A ). Thoracic computed tomography revealed peripheral ground-glass opacities in both lungs, compatible with COVID-19 pneumonia ( Figure 1B ). After the occurrence of COVID-19-associated hepatitis on day 12, the clinical and laboratory findings gradually improved with antipyretic and antimicrobial treatment of bacterial superinfection.
PD Dr. med. Christoph D. Spinner , Klinikum rechts der Isar, Clinic and Polyclinic for Internal Medicine II, Faculty of Medicine, Technical University of Munich, German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), Munich location, Christoph.Spinner@mri. tum.de.
Dr. med. Alexander Schuldt , Freising Clinic; Dr. med. Jörg Schuster, Radiologie Freising
Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare that no conflict of interest exists.
Translated from the original German by David Roseveare.
Cite this as: Spinner CD, Schuldt A, Schuster J: A moderate case of COVID-19 viral pneumonia during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Dtsch Arztebl Int 2020; 117: 219. DOI: 10.3238 / arztebl.2020.0219
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