Dataset Information

COVID-19 Autopsies Reveal Underreporting of SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Scarcity of Co-infections.

ABSTRACT: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) mortality can be estimated based on reliable mortality data. Variable testing procedures and heterogeneous disease course suggest that a substantial number of COVID-19 deaths is undetected. To address this question, we screened an unselected autopsy cohort for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 and a panel of common respiratory pathogens. Lung tissues from 62 consecutive autopsies, conducted during the first and second COVID-19 pandemic waves in Switzerland, were analyzed for bacterial, viral and fungal respiratory pathogens including SARS-CoV-2. SARS-CoV-2 was detected in 28 lungs of 62 deceased patients (45%), although only 18 patients (29%) were reported to have COVID-19 at the time of death. In 23 patients (37% of all), the clinical cause of death and/or autopsy findings together with the presence of SARS-CoV-2 suggested death due to COVID-19. Our autopsy results reveal a 16% higher SARS-CoV-2 infection rate and an 8% higher SARS-CoV-2 related mortality rate than reported by clinicians before death. The majority of SARS-CoV-2 infected patients (75%) did not suffer from respiratory co-infections, as long as they were treated with antibiotics. In the lungs of 5 patients (8% of all), SARS-CoV-2 was found, yet without typical clinical and/or autopsy findings. Our findings suggest that underreporting of COVID-19 contributes substantially to excess mortality. The small percentage of co-infections in SARS-CoV-2 positive patients who died with typical COVID-19 symptoms strongly suggests that the majority of SARS-CoV-2 infected patients died from and not with the virus.

SUBMITTER: Schwab N

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9046787 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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COVID-19 Autopsies Reveal Underreporting of SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Scarcity of Co-infections.

Schwab Nathalie N Nienhold Ronny R Henkel Maurice M Baschong Albert A Graber Anne A Frank Angela A Mensah Nadine N Koike Jacqueline J Hernach Claudia C Sachs Melanie M Daun Till T Zsikla Veronika V Willi Niels N Junt Tobias T Mertz Kirsten D KD

Frontiers in medicine 20220414

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) mortality can be estimated based on reliable mortality data. Variable testing procedures and heterogeneous disease course suggest that a substantial number of COVID-19 deaths is undetected. To address this question, we screened an unselected autopsy cohort for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 and a panel of common respiratory pathogens. Lung tissues from 62 consecutive autopsies, conducted during the first and second COVID-19 pandemic waves in Switzerland, were anal ...[more]

PMID: 35492342

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Project description:Autoimmune cardiopathies (AC) following COVID-19 and vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 occur at significant rates but are of unknown etiology. This study investigated the possible roles of viral and bacterial mimicry, as well as viral-bacterial co-infections, as possible inducers of COVID-19 AC using proteomic methods and enzyme-linked immunoadsorption assays. BLAST and LALIGN results of this study demonstrate that SARS-CoV-2 shares a significantly greater number of high quality similarities to some cardiac protein compared with other viruses; that bacteria such as Streptococci, Staphylococci and Enterococci also display very significant similarities to cardiac proteins but to a different set than SARS-CoV-2; that the importance of these similarities is largely validated by ELISA experiments demonstrating that polyclonal antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19-associated bacteria recognize cardiac proteins with high affinity; that to account for the range of cardiac proteins targeted by autoantibodies in COVID-19-associated autoimmune myocarditis, both viral and bacterial triggers are probably required; that the targets of the viral and bacterial antibodies are often molecularly complementary antigens such as actin and myosin, laminin and collagen, or creatine kinase and pyruvate kinase, that are known to bind to each other; and that the corresponding viral and bacterial antibodies recognizing these complementary antigens also bind to each other with high affinity as if they have an idiotype-anti-idiotype relationship. These results suggest that AC results from SARS-CoV-2 infections or vaccination complicated by bacterial infections. Vaccination against some of these bacterial infections, such as Streptococci and Haemophilus, may therefore decrease AC risk, as may the appropriate and timely use of antibiotics among COVID-19 patients and careful screening of vaccinees for signs of infection such as fever, diarrhea, infected wounds, gum disease, etc.

Dataset Information

COVID-19 Autopsies Reveal Underreporting of SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Scarcity of Co-infections.

Publications

COVID-19 Autopsies Reveal Underreporting of SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Scarcity of Co-infections.

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