About the Authors

Chao-Ju Chen

Affiliations Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Tsu-Lan Wu

Affiliation Department of Clinical Pathology, Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan

Po-Liang Lu

Affiliations Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Ying-Tsong Chen

Affiliations Institute of Genomics and Bioinformatics, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan, Biotechnology Center, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan, Institute of Molecular and Genomic Medicine, National Health Research Institutes, Miaoli, Taiwan

Chang-Phone Fung

Affiliation Section of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan

Yin-Ching Chuang

Affiliations Department of Internal Medicine and Medical Research, Chi Mei Medical Center, Tainan, Taiwan, Department of Internal Medicine, Chi Mei Medical Center, Liouying, Tainan, Taiwan

Jung-Chung Lin

linjungchung1@yahoo.com.tw

Affiliations Division of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan, Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan

L. Kristopher Siu

Affiliations Division of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan, Graduate Institute of Basic Medical Science, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan, National Institute of Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology, National Health Research Institutes, Miaoli, Taiwan

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: CJC JCL LKS. Performed the experiments: CJC TLW PLL YTC JCL LKS. Analyzed the data: CJC TLW PLL YTC CPF YCC JCL LKS. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: CJC TLW PLL YTC CPF JCL LKS. Contributed to the writing of the manuscript: CJC PLL YTC JCL LKS. English checked and edited: CJC YTC JCL LKS.