tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
J Fungi (Basel)
. 2022 Mar 17;8(3):307.
doi: 10.3390/jof8030307.
Prevalence of COVID-19 Associated Mucormycosis in a German Tertiary Care Hospital
Ulrike Scharmann[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Frank Herbstreit[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Nina Kristin Steckel[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Jutta Dedy[SUP] 4 [/SUP], Jan Buer[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Peter-Michael Rath[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Hedda Luise Verhasselt[SUP] 1 [/SUP]
Affiliations
Abstract
Due to Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) a new group of patients at risk emerged with COVID-19-associated mucormycosis (CAM). Systematic studies, evaluating the prevalence of CAM are missing. To assess CAM prevalence in a tertiary care hospital in Germany, we applied direct microscopy, fungal culture and quantitative realtime in-house PCR targeting Mucorales-specific fragments of 18S and 28S rRNA on respiratory specimens of 100 critically ill COVID-19 patients. Overall, one Mucorales-PCR positive bronchoalevolar lavage was found whereas direct microscopy and fungal culture were negative in all cases. We conclude that a routine screening for CAM in Germany is not indicated.
Keywords: COVID-19; Mucorales qPCR; SARS-CoV-2; fungal infection; mucormycosis.
. 2022 Mar 17;8(3):307.
doi: 10.3390/jof8030307.
Prevalence of COVID-19 Associated Mucormycosis in a German Tertiary Care Hospital
Ulrike Scharmann[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Frank Herbstreit[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Nina Kristin Steckel[SUP] 3 [/SUP], Jutta Dedy[SUP] 4 [/SUP], Jan Buer[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Peter-Michael Rath[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Hedda Luise Verhasselt[SUP] 1 [/SUP]
Affiliations
- PMID: 35330309
- DOI: 10.3390/jof8030307
Abstract
Due to Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) a new group of patients at risk emerged with COVID-19-associated mucormycosis (CAM). Systematic studies, evaluating the prevalence of CAM are missing. To assess CAM prevalence in a tertiary care hospital in Germany, we applied direct microscopy, fungal culture and quantitative realtime in-house PCR targeting Mucorales-specific fragments of 18S and 28S rRNA on respiratory specimens of 100 critically ill COVID-19 patients. Overall, one Mucorales-PCR positive bronchoalevolar lavage was found whereas direct microscopy and fungal culture were negative in all cases. We conclude that a routine screening for CAM in Germany is not indicated.
Keywords: COVID-19; Mucorales qPCR; SARS-CoV-2; fungal infection; mucormycosis.