If Not COVID-19 What Is It? Analysis of COVID-19 versus Common Respiratory Viruses among Symptomatic Health Care Workers in a Tertiary Infectious Disease Referral Hospital in Manila, Philippines.
Agrupis, Kristal An;
Villanueva, Annavi Marie G;
Sayo, Ana Ria;
Lazaro, Jezreel;
Han, Su Myat;
Celis, Alyannah C;
Suzuki, Shuichi;
Uichanco, Ann Celestyn;
Sagurit, Jocelyn;
Solante, Rontgene;
+3 more...Yoshida, Lay-Myint;
Ariyoshi, Koya;
Smith, Chris;
(2021)
If Not COVID-19 What Is It? Analysis of COVID-19 versus Common Respiratory Viruses among Symptomatic Health Care Workers in a Tertiary Infectious Disease Referral Hospital in Manila, Philippines.
Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease, 6 (1).
p. 39.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/tropicalmed6010039
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The COVID-19 global pandemic is entering its second year. In this short report we present additional results as a supplement to our previous paper on COVID-19 and common respiratory virus screening for healthcare workers (HCWs) in a tertiary infectious disease referral hospital in Manila, Philippines. We sought to understand what etiologic agents could explain the upper/lower respiratory tract infection-like (URTI/LRTI-like) symptoms exhibited by 88% of the 324 HCWs tested. Among the patients who had URTI/LRTI-like symptoms, only seven (2%) were positive for COVID-19, while 38 (13%) of the symptomatic participants were identified positive for another viral etiologic agent. Rhinovirus was the most common infection, with 21 (9%) of the symptomatic participants positive for rhinovirus. Based on these results, testing symptomatic HCWs for common respiratory illnesses in addition to COVID-19 should be considered during this time of global pandemic.
