Frequency of opportunistic pathogens in Covid-19 and their impact on clinical outcome

An infection caused by herpes viruses or the fungus Aspergillus in the lung can occur in patients with severe COVID-19. It remains unclear how often this occurs and whether it affects the severity of the disease. Goal The aim of this study is to investigate how common an infection with herpes viruses or the fungus Aspergillus occurs in severe COVID-19, and whether this affects the severity of the disease. Research design An important cause for the development of severe COVID-19 is a harmful inflammatory response. During the pandemic it became known that inhibition of this inflammatory response was beneficial for patients with severe COVID-19. The risk of these treatments is that there may be an increased susceptibility to herpes infections and fungal infections. Through this research we want to find out how often an infection with herpes viruses or the fungus Aspergillus occurs in severe COVID-19 and whether this affects the severity of the disease. These results are needed to subsequently investigate whether treating these infections in patients with COVID-19 is useful.