Coinfections among hospitalized patients with covid-19 in the first pandemic wave.

BACKGROUND: COVID19 is the novel respiratory illness caused by SARS-CoV-2. The presence of other potentially pathogenic microorganisms could worsen the prognosis of these patients. AIM: The study aims to describe coinfections in COVID-19 patients and contrast it between standard ward and critical care patients at Hospital Central de la Defensa Gómez Ulla (HCDGU). METHODS: A retrospective study was carried out of patients with COVID-19 confirmed with RTPCR admitted to the HCDGU from March 5, 2020 to May 7 of 2020. FINDINGS: Of a total of 703 patients with COVID-19, 75(10.7%) had other microbiologically confirmed infections: 9% (58/648) in standard ward patients and 31.5%(17/54) in critical care patients. In total 86 samples of the 75 patients presented some microorganism; clinically relevant bacteraemias, 50%, respiratory cultures, 32.6% and pneumococcal positive antigens, 17.4%. CONCLUSIONS: We found a low frequency of microorganism coinfection in COVID-19 patients, however in critical care these coinfections increased considerably.

Comparison of various serological assays for novel SARS-COV-2.

Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID19), the novel respiratory illness caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), is associated with severe morbidity and mortality. The aim of our study was to compare different immunoassays. We evaluated three immunochromatographic test (The StrongStep®SARS-CoV-2 IgG/IgM kit, AllTest COV-19 IgG/IgM kit, and Wondfo® SARS-CoV-2 Antibody) and two chemiluminescence immunoassays (CMIA) (Covid-19 VIRCLIA® IgM+IgA/IgG monotest and the Abbott SARS-CoV-2 IgG assay) in COVID-19 patients. The assays were performed using serum samples of three group patients, i.e., healthy controls, patients with SARS-CoV-2 PCR positive, and patients with SARS-CoV-2 PCR negative clinically diagnosed of COVID-19 infection. The detection percentages of IgG with the StrongStep® SARS-CoV-2 IgG/IgM kit and AllTest COV-19 IgG/IgM kit were similar in both groups (83.3% and 80.6%, respectively in group 2, p = 0.766) and (42.9% and 50.0%, respectively in group 3, p = 0.706). There were some differences on IgM detection between StrongStep® SARS-CoV-2 IgG/IgM kit and AllTest COV-19 IgG/IgM kit (11.1% and 30.6%, respectively in group 2, p = 0.042 and 0.0% and 28.6%, respectively in group 3, p = 0.031). The positive rate of IgG in group 2 is higher compared to group 3 with the two immunoassays tested. We observe the same positive rates of IgG with the two CMIA. Our study shows excellent performance of CMIA compared to immunochromatographic test and confirms its potential use in the diagnosis of the new SARS-CoV-2.