Prevalence of Opportunistic Invasive Aspergillosis in COVID-19 Patients with Severe Pneumonia

Overview

Journal Mycoses

Specialty Microbiology

Date 2020 Nov 20

PMID 33217071

Citations 42

Authors

Gonzalo Segrelles-Calvo

Glauber R S Araujo

Estefania Llopis-Pastor

Javier Carrillo

Marta Hernandez-Hernandez

Laura Rey

Nestor Rodriguez Melean

Ines Escribano

Esther Anton

Celia Zamarro

Mercedes Garcia-Salmones

Susana Frases

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: As the global coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) spreads across the world, new clinical challenges emerge in the hospital landscape. Among these challenges, the increased risk of coinfections is a major threat to the patients. Although still in a low number, due to the short time of the pandemic, studies that identified a significant number of hospitalised patients with COVID-19 who developed secondary fungal infections that led to serious complications and even death have been published.

Objectives: In this scenario, we aim to determine the prevalence of invasive fungal infections (IFIs) and describe possible associated risk factors in patients admitted due to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection.

Patients/methods: We designed an open prospective observational study at the Rey Juan Carlos University Hospital (Mostoles, Spain), during the period from February 1 to April 30, 2020.

Results: In this article, we reported seven patients with COVID-19-associated pulmonary aspergillosis (CAPA) who had a poor prognosis. Severely ill patients represent a high-risk group; therefore, we must actively investigate the possibility of aspergillosis in all of these patients. Larger cohort studies are needed to unravel the role of COVID-19 immunosuppressive therapy as a risk factor for aspergillosis.

Conclusions: As the pandemic continues to spread across the world, further reports are needed to assess the frequency of emergent and highly resistant reemergent fungal infections during severe COVID-19. These coinfections are leading a significant number of patients with COVID-19 to death due to complications following the primary viral disease.

Citing Articles

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Risk factors and the value of microbiological examinations of COVID-19 associated pulmonary aspergillosis in critically ill patients in intensive care unit: the appropriate microbiological examinations are crucial for the timely diagnosis of CAPA.

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