How do people fare after being infected with both SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) and a different respiratory virus? To find out, Sweta Chekuri, M.B.B.S., Sarah Baron, M.D., M.S., and colleagues, retrospectively studied 306 COVID-19 patients aged 18 and older who’d been seen at Montefiore Medical Center (MMC), some of whom were also infected with another non-influenza, non-RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) respiratory virus.

The researchers evaluated the patients for whether they had been admitted to the hospital and for how long, how sick they were on admission, and whether they were more likely to have severe COVID-19 outcomes such as mechanical ventilation and death. Compared with people infected with SARS-CoV-2 alone, people with coinfections had less severe disease on presentation to MMC and were more likely to be hospitalized, but they did not have worse outcomes. The findings could help public health officials to better understand the importance and utility of broadly testing for respiratory viruses when testing for COVID-19. The research was published online on September 23 in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.

Dr. Chekuri is an assistant professor of medicine at Einstein and Montefiore and Dr. Baron is an associate professor of medicine at Einstein and Montefiore.