Co-Pathogens : a systematic review of different co-pathogens of SARS-CoV 2 / Patrick Alcantara, Miel Aren Magtoto and Marc Erebson San Diego.

Includes appendices and bibliographical references.

Abstract: SARS-CoV-2, was first discovered in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 since then it was affecting millions of people world wide. Although, the natural reservoirs of these are from bats, civets, pangolins and in some cases from camels, it can jump from different species cross-infections. In previous pandemics there have been reports of patients with co-pathogens causing co-infections that may lead to the severity of the disease and in some cases fatality. This systematic review aims to identify the co-pathogens, morbidity rate and mortality rate associated with SARS-Cov-2. The researchers have gathered 41 literatures regarding the co-pathogens associated with SARS-Cov-2 by using online research databases such as PubLons, PubMed, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, Web of Science, Google Scholar, The Lancet and grey literatures. Out of 41 literatures only 19 were included in data analysis, the 19 literatures contains 2239 cases that are SARS-CoV 2 positive out of 2239 there were only 362 cases with co-pathogens. The researchers have found that the morbidity rate is 16.16% and the commonest co-pathogens were bacterial infecting 245 out of 362 cases with a morbidity rate of 67.68% followed by fungal co-pathogens with 108 cases and a morbidity rate of 29.83% and lastly, the viral co-pathogens with 53 cases and with the morbidity rate of 14.64%. The researchers were able to identify the most common bacterial, fungal and viral co-pathogens, for bacterial Enterobacter spp. and P. aeruginosa were the most common, for fungal Aspergillus spp. was the most common for viral Influenza was the most common. In conclusion, majority of the pathogens and this goes to show that the co-pathogens may to some extent were reliant to the pathogenesis of the SARS-CoV2 to allow them to co-infect much easier.

Thesis - School of Medical Technology