Comparative Analysis of Clinical and Epidemiological Characteristics in Patients with SARI Confirmed as Influenza or COVID-19 Admitted in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Bucharest, Romania

Bianca Georgiana Enciu (Milcu),Oana Săndulescu,Dragoș Florea,Anuța Bilașco,Daniela Pițigoi,Adrian Streinu-Cercel,Victor Daniel Miron,Maria Dorina Crăciun,Anca Streinu-Cercel,Anca Cristina Drăgănescu,Victoria Aramă

doi:10.3390/pr10020327

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has influenced the epidemiology of other respiratory pathogens, and this was most evident in the 2020–2021 season, which was characterized by a low circulation of influenza viruses. We aim to present a comparative analysis of clinical and epidemiological characteristics of 2018–2019 influenza cases and 2020–2021 COVID-19 cases, hospitalized at a tertiary infectious diseases hospital in Bucharest. We used data collected from patients admitted for severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) and subsequently confirmed with either influenza or COVID-19. During the 2018–2019 season, 208 patients over 18 years of age were confirmed with influenza (median age = 53 years, 59.6% were female) and 6.7% had been vaccinated against influenza. The most frequent symptoms were fever (97.1%) and cough (94.7%), and 77.4% had at least one chronic condition. 90.4% received influenza antiviral therapy. During the 2020–2021 season, 191 patients were confirmed with COVID-19 (median age = 56 years, 67% were male). The most frequent symptoms were cough (85.9%) and fever (80.6%), and 75.9% had at least one chronic condition. This analysis highlights the main similarities and differences between influenza and COVID-19 and could help to optimize the management of cases.

Highlights

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic was an unexpected event for everyone
Influenza was responsible for seasonal epidemics associated with important morbidity, especially in vulnerable people, while coronaviruses were generally responsible for respiratory infections with favorable outcomes [1,2,3,4,5,6]
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the 2018–2019 influenza season was notably longer than previous seasons, the overall burden of this season being an estimated 29 million influenza illnesses, 13 million influenzarelated medical visits, 380,000 influenza-related hospitalizations, and 28,000 influenza deaths

Summary

Introduction

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic was an unexpected event for everyone. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the 2018–2019 influenza season was notably longer than previous seasons, the overall burden of this season being an estimated 29 million influenza illnesses, 13 million influenzarelated medical visits, 380,000 influenza-related hospitalizations, and 28,000 influenza deaths This last pre-pandemic season was characterized by an important circulation of influenza A viruses, the dominant subtype differing by country [7,8]. In Europe, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic was marked by a decline in hospital admissions and in the number of samples tested for other respiratory viruses This decrease had a negative impact on the collection of epidemiological and virological data about influenza, especially during the second half of the 2019–2020 season. During the 2020–2021 season, a significant decrease (>99%) of laboratory-confirmed influenza cases was recorded [9,10]

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