The research team, from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, said the findings are especially relevant now as public health restrictions are lifted, making respiratory virus co-infections more likely. The team looked at adults with COVID-19 who were admitted to a hospital in the U.K. between Feb. 6, 2020, and Dec. 8, 2021.
1. Overall, researchers identified 583 confirmed co-infections. Of these, 227 patients had influenza viruses, 220 had respiratory syncytial virus and 136 had adenoviruses. Meanwhile, 6,382 had confirmed SARS-CoV-2 mono-infections.
2. Patients with both COVID-19 and flu were more than twice as likely to require mechanical ventilation compared to those with COVID-19 alone.
3. Hospitalized patients co-infected with influenza viruses and adenoviruses also had a higher death risk relative to those with just COVID-19.
4. Researchers said this is the largest study of people with COVID-19 undergoing additional testing for endemic respiratory viruses.
5. They concluded their results offer further support for vaccination against both COVID-19 and influenza viruses, and that “testing for influenza viruses is important in hospital inpatients with COVID-19 to identify patients at risk and a cohort of patients who might have different responses to immunomodulatory and antiviral therapy.”
