Rates of coinfection with other respiratory pathogens in patients positive for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19)

• Main Authors: Edward M. Castillo, Christopher J. Coyne, Jesse J. Brennan, Christian A. Tomaszewski
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2020-08-01
• Series: Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians Open
• Subjects: coinfection; COVID‐19; emergency department; epidemic; pandemic; virus
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1002/emp2.12172

Abstract Objectives The purpose of this study was to assess coinfection rates of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) with other respiratory infections on presentation. Methods This is a retrospective analysis of data from a 2 hospital academic medical centers and 2 urgent care centers during the initial 2 weeks of testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2), March 10, 2020 to March 23, 2020. Testing was targeted toward high‐risk patients following US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. Demographics include age group and sex. Laboratory test results included SARS‐CoV‐2, rapid influenza A/B, and upper respiratory pathogen nucleic acid detection. Patient demographics and coinfections are presented overall and by test results with descriptive statistics. Results Complete laboratory results from the first 2 weeks of testing were available for 471 emergency department patients and 117 urgent care center patients who were tested for SARS‐CoV. A total of 51 (8.7%) patients tested positive for COVID‐19 with only 1 of these patients also testing positive for another respiratory infection. One of the patients positive for COVID‐19 also tested positive for influenza A. Among the 537 patients who were screened and tested negative for COVID‐19, there were 33 (6.1%) patients who tested positive in the upper respiratory pathogen nucleic acid detection test. Conclusion In our study investigating coinfections among 51 patients testing positive for COVID‐19, 1 patient also tested positive for influenza A. Although we found limited coinfections in our emergency department and urgent care center patient populations, further research is needed to assess potential coinfection in patients with COVID‐19.