Aspergillus But Not Candida: Fatal Fungus Infection in COVID-19 Critical Patients

Objectives: Earlier researches suggested patients should be routinely screened for bacteria and fungi infection after COVID-19 being confirmed. Here, we enrolled 236 patients with COVID-19 to analyze the clinical characteristics, fungal strains, mortality, and laboratory data of different groups. Design: Single center retrospective study Patients: A total of 236 COVID-19 patients from Huoshenshan Hospital were included in this study, consisting of 14(6%) died cases, 222(94%) discharged cases. Results: The result revealed that 5 mortality in positive group were all related to aspergillus infection while candida infection rarely caused death. Aspergillus was most common in non-survivors while candida was most common in survivors. In terms of interleukin-6 (IL6), viral loads, nucleic acid clearance time, etc, fungal serologically positive group had a higher level than negative group. Conclusions: Non-survivors of Covid-19 with fungal infection were almost associated with aspergillus infection. Aspergillus infection, instead of candida infection might be fatal for critical ill patients with COVID-19. There is great significance to carry out routine screening for fungal infection especially for critical patients to enable early treatment to be implemented. Funding Statement: This study was financially supported by grants Key Foundation of Wuhan Huoshenshan Hospital (2020[18]), Key Research& Development Program of Jiangsu Province (BE2018713), Medical Innovation Project of Logistics Service (18JS005). Declaration of Interests: The authors declare no competing interests. Ethics Approval Statement: This study was approved by the Medical Ethical Committee of Wuhan Huoshenshan Hospital (No. HSSLL011). Written informed consent was obtained from each patient.