Post-COVID Era: Epidemiologic, Virologic and Clinical Studies
A special issue of Microorganisms (ISSN 2076-2607). This special issue belongs to the section "Public Health Microbiology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2026 | Viewed by 172
Special Issue Editors
Interests: public health epidemiology; infectious disease surveillance; COVID-19 outcomes and post-acute sequelae; health systems management; sepsis and critical illness; antimicrobial resistance; clinical epidemiology; healthcare quality and safety; population health analytics
Interests: cardiovascular complications of COVID-19; sepsis and systemic inflammation; biomarkers of disease severity (IL-6, troponin, NT-proBNP); post-acute COVID-19 syndrome; clinical outcomes research; cardio-metabolic comorbidities; critical care infections
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This Special Issue, entitled “Post-COVID Era: Epidemiologic, Virologic and Clinical Studies”, aims to advance understanding of the long-term biological mechanisms and clinical consequences of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the post-pandemic period. As COVID-19 evolves from an acute global emergency into an endemic viral disease, growing evidence highlights the role of persistent viral activity, immune dysregulation, and chronic inflammatory responses in driving post-acute sequelae and multisystem involvement.
This Special Issue will particularly emphasize the microbiological, virological, and immunopathological mechanisms underlying post-COVID conditions, including viral persistence and evolution, host–pathogen interactions, immune exhaustion, cytokine imbalance, endothelial dysfunction, and chronic inflammatory pathways contributing to long COVID and organ dysfunction. Additionally, the impact of microbiome disruption, secondary infections, and antimicrobial resistance in post-COVID patients will be explored.
Key topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Viral evolution, variant-driven pathogenicity, and post-infectious viral reservoirs;
- Immune dysregulation, cytokine-mediated inflammation, and autoimmunity after SARS-CoV-2 infection;
- Chronic organ damage and multisystem inflammatory consequences of COVID-19;
- Epidemiologic trends, reinfections, and long-term population-level outcomes;
- Secondary microbial complications, microbiome alterations, and antimicrobial resistance;
- Cardiovascular, metabolic, and inflammatory sequelae of post-COVID syndrome.
Original research articles, systematic reviews, and short communications are welcome, with a focus on mechanistic insights and translational relevance to improve clinical management and public health strategies in the post-COVID era.
Dr. Adrian-Cosmin Ilie
Guest Editor
Dr. Ana Maria Pah
Guest Editor Assistant
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Microorganisms is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- post-COVID syndrome
- long COVID
- SARS-CoV-2
- epidemiology
- clinical outcomes
- inflammatory biomarkers
- cardiovascular complications
- sepsis
- viral evolution
- antimicrobial resistance
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