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. 2021 Feb 13;41(1):51–57. doi: 10.1007/s11596-021-2317-2

Co-infection of SARS-COV-2 and Influenza A Virus: A Case Series and Fast Review

Xuan Xiang 1, Zi-hao Wang 1, Lin-lin Ye 1, Xin-liang He 1, Xiao-shan Wei 1, Yan-ling Ma 1, Hui Li 1, Long Chen 1, Xiao-rong Wang 1, Qiong Zhou 1,✉
PMCID: PMC7881910  PMID: 33582905

Summary

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) occurs in the influenza season and has become a global pandemic. The present study aimed to examine severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) co-infection with influenza A virus (IAV) in an attempt to provide clues for the antiviral interventions of co-infected patients. We described two patients who were co-infected with SARS-CoV-2 and IAV treated at Wuhan Union Hospital, China. In addition, we performed a review in PubMed, Web of Science and CNKI (from January 1 up to November 1, 2020) with combinations of the following key words: “COVID-19, SARS-COV-2, influenza A and co-infection”. A total of 28 co-infected patients were enrolled in the analysis. Of the 28 patients, the median age was 54.5 years (IQR, 34.25–67.5) and 14 cases (50.0%) were classified as severe types. The most common symptoms were fever (85.71%), cough (82.14%) and dyspnea (60.71%). Sixteen patients had lymphocytopenia on admission and 23 patients exhibited abnormal radiological changes. The median time from symptom onset to hospital admission was 4 days (IQR, 3–6), and the median time of hospital stay was 14 days (IQR, 8.5–16.75). In conclusion, patients with SARS-COV-2 and IAV co-infection were similar to those infected with SARS-COV-2 alone in symptoms and radiological images. SARS-COV-2 co-infection with IAV could lead to more severe clinical condition but did not experience longer hospital stay compared with patients infected with SARS-COV-2 alone.

Key words: co-infection, COVID-19, influenza A, SARS-COV-2

Footnotes

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81973990, No. 81900096, and No.81770090) and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2020kfyXGYJ030).

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest with any financial organization or corporation or individual that can inappropriately influence this work.

Contributor Information

Xuan Xiang, Email: xxuan@hust.edu.cn.

Qiong Zhou, Email: zhouqiongtj@126.com.

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