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

• Published in: Tropical medicine and infectious disease Vol. 6; no. 1; p. 39
• Main Authors: 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, Yoshida, Lay-Myint, Ariyoshi, Koya, Smith, Chris
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 19.03.2021; MDPI
• Subjects: Adenoviruses; coinfections; Communication; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Fever; health care workers; Hospitals; Illnesses; Infections; Influenza; Pandemics; Pathogens; Philippines; Quarantine; Respiratory diseases; Respiratory syncytial virus; respiratory viruses; rhinovirus; Risk exposure; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Viral infections; Viruses; Philippines; COVID-19; coinfections; health care workers; respiratory viruses; rhinovirus; Philippines
• ISSN: 2414-6366; 2414-6366
• DOI: 10.3390/tropicalmed6010039

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.