Research

Co-infection by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and influenza virus enhances the severity of pneumonia in golden Syrian hamsters

Clinical Infectious Diseases, 20 December 2020

Anna Jinxia Zhang, Andrew Chak-Yiu Lee, Jasper Fuk-Woo Chan, Feifei Liu, Can Li, Yanxia Chen, Hin Chu, Siu-Ying Lau, Pui Wang, Chris Chung-Sing Chan, Vincent Kwok-Man Poon, Shuofeng Yuan, Kelvin Kai-Wang To, Honglin Chen, Kwok-Yung Yuen

Highlights:

  • Established a golden Syrian hamster model co-infected by SARS-CoV-2 and mouse-adapted A(H1N1)pdm09 simultaneously or sequentially.
  • Co-infected hamsters had more weight loss, more severe lung inflammatory damage and tissue cytokine/chemokine expression.
  • Simultaneous co-infection was associated with delay in resolution of lung damages, lower serum SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody and longer SARS-CoV-2 shedding in oral swabs compared to that of SARS-CoV-2 infection alone.
  • Whole-population influenza vaccination for prevention of co-infection, and multiplex molecular diagnostics for both viruses to achieve early initiation of antiviral treatment for improvement of clinical outcome should be considered.

Read full text

Tags
Show More

Related Articles

Back to top button
Close