About the Authors

Giustino Parruti

Contributed equally to this work with: Giustino Parruti, Francesco Vadini

parruti@tin.it

Affiliation Unit of Infectious Diseases, Pescara General Hospital, Pescara, Italy

Francesco Vadini

Contributed equally to this work with: Giustino Parruti, Francesco Vadini

Affiliation Unit of Infectious Diseases, Pescara General Hospital, Pescara, Italy

Federica Sozio

Affiliation Unit of Infectious Diseases, Pescara General Hospital, Pescara, Italy

Elena Mazzott

Affiliation Unit of Infectious Diseases, Pescara General Hospital, Pescara, Italy

Tamara Ursini

Affiliation Unit of Infectious Diseases, Pescara General Hospital, Pescara, Italy

Ennio Polill

Affiliation Unit of Infectious Diseases, Pescara General Hospital, Pescara, Italy

Paola Di Stefano

Affiliation Unit of Infectious Diseases, Pescara General Hospital, Pescara, Italy

Monica Tontodonati

Affiliation Unit of Infectious Diseases, Pescara General Hospital, Pescara, Italy

Maria C. Verrocchio

Affiliation Clinical Psychology Division, University of Chieti-Pescara, Italy

Mario Fulcheri

Affiliation Clinical Psychology Division, University of Chieti-Pescara, Italy

Giulio Calella

Affiliation Unit of Infectious Diseases, Pescara General Hospital, Pescara, Italy

Francesca Santilli

Affiliation Department of Medicine and Aging, University of Chieti-Pescara, Italy

Lamberto Manzoli

Affiliation Section of Hygiene, Epidemiology, Pharmacology and Legal Medicine, University of Chieti-Pescara, Italy

Competing Interests

Lamberto Manzoli is a PLOS ONE Editorial Board member. This does not alter the authors’ adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.The other authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: GP FV F. Santilli LM. Performed the experiments: GP FV F. Sozio EM TU MT GC EP F. Santilli PDS MCV. Analyzed the data: GP FV F. Santilli F. Sozio MF GC LM. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: GP FV EP LM. Wrote the paper: GP FV EM TU MT GC EP F. Santilli MF LM.