Fungal Infections in Severe Cases of Patients with COVID-19
Samar Raffia Herby Al-Saidi, Zuhair Hameed Abboud, Hassan Ali Al-SaadiAbstract
Background:
A new coronavirus, which is named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Following a report of an outbreak of “viral pneumonia” cases in Wuhan, People’s Republic of China. Early research found that hospitalized COVID-19 patients had low rates of bacterial and fungal infections, but these rates are constantly increasing.
Objective:
The study aimed to find the relationship between the severity of COVID-19 and fungal confections, to determine who is more susceptible to the disease, and to highlight comorbidities in those patients.
Materials and Methods:
This case–control study included 167 individuals, of them were the control group and 137 patients who recumbent in the respiratory care unit from some hospitals in Babylon province, determine fungal infection for all patients and healthy persons by using nasopharyngeal swaps, age range between 10 and 70 years, collection of specimens was between January 2021 and April 2022.
Results:
A total of 137 samples for patients were collected, the males were 75, the females were 62, and the control group was 30 samples. The percentage of fungal infection in patients with COVID-19 was 21.8%, male and elderly people were more infected than female and younger individuals, also it was noted that there were significant differences (
Conclusion:
Increased spread of fungal infection in patients with COVID-19 and patients with COVID-19 are more likely to get comorbidities and vice versa. Therefore, males were more susceptible to disease compared with females and older persons compared with younger ones.