Weak association of coinfection by SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory viruses with severe cases and death

  1. L Fernandes-Matano
  2. IE Monroy-Muñoz
  3. LA Uribe-Noguez
  4. MA Hernández-Cueto
  5. B Sarquiz-Martínez
  6. HD Pardavé-Alejandre
  7. A Santos Coy-Arechavaleta
  8. JE Alvarado-Yaah
  9. T Rojas-Mendoza
  10. CE Santacruz-Tinoco
  11. C Grajales-Muñiz
  12. VH Borja-Aburto
  13. JE Muñoz-Medina

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Abstract

Background

SARS-CoV-2 is a novel coronavirus described for the first time in China in December 2019. This virus can cause a disease that ranges in spectrum from asymptomatic to severe respiratory disease with multiorgan failure, and the most severe cases are associated with some comorbidities and patient age. However, there are patients who do not have those risk factors who still develop serious disease.

Methods

In this study, we identified the presence of other respiratory viruses in positive cases of COVID-19 in Mexico to determine if any coinfections were correlated with more severe manifestations of COVID-19. We analysed 103 confirmed cases of COVID-19 using RT-qPCR for the detection of 16 other respiratory viruses.

Results

Of the cases analysed, 14 (13.6%) were cases of coinfection, and 92% of them never required hospitalization, even when comorbidities and advanced age were involved. There weren’t significant differences between the presence of comorbidities and the mean ages of the groups

Conclusions

These results suggest that coinfection is not related to more severe COVID-19 and that, depending on the virus involved, it could even lead to a better prognosis. We believe that our findings may lay the groundwork for new studies aimed at determining the biological mechanism by which this phenomenon occurs and for proposing corresponding strategies to limit the progression to severe cases of COVID-19.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.07.22.20159400: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

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  2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.07.22.20159400v1 on medRxiv