Nutritional Advice El Mondo
Objectives:
Do clinical symptoms, laboratory findings, radiographic signs and outcomes differ between COVID‐19 and influenza?
Study design:
This review article included 157 studies with 75,164 COVID-19 patients, 251 studies with 113,818 influenza type A patients and 47 studies with 9,266 influenza type B patients.
Funnel plots for included studies did not detect significant publication bias.
Results and conclusions:
The investigators found runny nose, dyspnoea, sore throat and rhinorrhoea were less frequent symptoms in COVID-19 patients [14%, 15%, 11.5% and 9.5%, respectively] in comparison to influenza type A [70%, 45.5%, 49% and 44.5%, respectively] and influenza type B [74%, 33%, 38% and 49%, respectively].
The investigators found most of the patients with COVID-19 had abnormal chest radiology [84%, p 0.001] in comparison to influenza type A [57%, p 0.001] and influenza type B [33%, p 0.001].
The investigators found the incubation period in COVID-19 [6.4 days estimated] was longer than influenza type A [3.4 days].
The investigators found, likewise, the duration of hospitalization in COVID-19 patients [14 days] was longer than influenza type A [6.5 days] and influenza type B [6.7 days].
The investigators found case fatality rate of hospitalized patients in COVID-19 was 6.5% [p 0.001], influenza type A [6%, p 0.001] and influenza type B was 3% [p 0.001].
The investigators found the most common comorbid chronic condition for COVID‐19 and influenza type A was hypertension by 20% [95% CI = 16 to 25, p 0.001] and diabetes for influenza type B by 19% [95% CI = 11 to 29, p 0.001].
The investigators found acute respiratory syndrome (ARDS) occurred more frequently presented in influenza type A by 31.5% [95% CI = 26 to 38, p 0.001] compared to COVID-19 by 26.6% [95% CI = 18 to 38, p 0.001] and influenza type B by 0.8% [95% CI = 0.1 to 6, p 0.001].
The investigators found virus co‐infection occurred more frequently in influenza type B by 24% [95% CI = 8 to 54, p 0.001], in comparison to influenza type A by 8.5% [95% CI = 5.5 to 13, p 0.001] and COVID-19 by 4% [95% CI = 1.5 to 10, p 0.001] patients.
The investigators found the most common radiological abnormalities in COVID-19 patients were bilateral involvement of chest x‐ray by 76.8% [95% CI = 62.5 to 87, p 0.001], consolidation by 75.5% [95% CI = 50.5 to 91, p 0.001] and ground‐glass opacity (GGO) by 71% [95% CI = 40 to 90, p 0.001].
The investigators found the hospital discharged rate of COVID-19 was 57.5% [95% CI = 49.5 to 62.5, p 0.001], which was lower in comparison to influenza type A [82%, 95% CI = 77 to 86, p 0.001] and influenza type B [87.5%, 95% CI = 63 to 97, p 0.001] patients.
The investigators concluded COVID‐19 and influenza have many differences in terms of involvement and severity of the pulmonary injury, mortality rate, laboratory findings and clinical symptoms. Due to the high transmissibility and the lack of effective medication or vaccine for COVID‐19, timely detection of this viral infection and distinguishing from influenza are very important.
Original title:
Comparison of influenza type A and B with COVID-19: A global systematic review and meta-analysis on clinical, laboratory and radiographic findings by Pormohammad A, Ghorbani S, […], Turner RJ.
Link:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/rmv.2179
Additional information of El Mondo:
Find more information/studies on coronavirus right here.