Prevalence of opportunistic invasive aspergillosis in COVID-19 patients with severe pneumonia

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.

Automated summary

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread globally, the risk of invasive fungal infections as a coinfection poses a significant threat to severely ill patients. Larger cohort studies are necessary to investigate the impact of COVID-19 immunosuppressive therapy on the development of aspergillosis.