Epidemic profile of common respiratory viruses in association SARS CoV-2 among SARI and ARI-two year study

Abstract

Background: COVID-19/SARS CoV-2 continue to pose a threat to human health and placed millions of livelihoods at risk. Surveillance for the other circulating seasonal viruses during this pandemic is necessary to understand the manifestations of the CoV-2 pandemic and their incidence.

Methods: A detailed study survey was performed on subjects with acute respiratory infections (ARI) and severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) in the King Institute of Preventive Medicine and Research, Chennai from April 2020 to March 2022. A total of 1480 patients presenting with either SARI (41.8%) or ARI (58.1%) were screened for SARS CoV-2 and other respiratory viruses. The SARS CoV-2 real-time PCR was carried out using ICMR-approved kits and other respiratory viruses were detected using the commercially available real-time kit.

Results: Out of the 620 SARI patients, 198 (31.9%) were positive for SARS CoV-2 RNA. Out of the 860 ARI patients, 352 (40.9%) were positive for SARS CoV-2 RNA. Among the 550 patients positive for SARS CoV-2, 7 (1.2%) were positive coexistent with other respiratory viruses. Among the 930 patients with negative SARS CoV-2, 222 (23.8%) were positive for other common respiratory viruses (p = 0.001). Influenza viruses (36.9%) predominated followed by RSV (31.9%) and Parainfluenza virus (13.5%).

Conclusion: This study suggests that viral coinfections are significantly higher among SARS CoV-2 negative individuals (23.8 vs. 1.2%). It is possibly due to viral interference and the competitive advantage of SARS CoV-2 in modulating the host immunity. Continuous surveillance is necessary for understanding the viral co-infection mechanisms.

Keywords: ARI; COVID-19; Co-infections; Influenza virus; Respiratory viruses; SARI; SARS CoV-2.