Detections of major respiratory pathogens in pneumonia patients in early phase of COVID-19 epidemic in Tongzhou, Beijing

  Objective  To understand the infection status of major respiratory pathogens in pneumonia patients in the early phase of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic (January-March, 2020) in Tongzhou district of Beijing.

  Methods  A total of 252 pneumonia patients were enrolled in this study. Real-time PCR tests was conducted for the detections of 32 pathogens by using the samples from all the patients. Both sputum samples and throat swabs were collected from 144 patients.

  Results  The positive rates of viruses, bacteria, and pneumocystis were 13.10% (33/252), 50.00% (126/252), and 1.59% (4/252), respectively. Co-infections were detected in 43 patients (17.06%, 43/252), in whom 13 had co-infections with viruses and bacteria or viruses and pneumocystis, and 30 had co-infections with two or more bacterial species or bacteria and pneumocystis. There were significant differences in the positive rates of Haemophilus influenzae (χ²=9.557, P=0.002) and Mycoplasma pneumoniae (χ²=7.831, P=0.005) between patients with or without underlying diseases. The differences in positive rates of viruses (χ²=16.112, P=0.003) and M. pneumoniae (χ²=10.741, P=0.030) were significant among five age groups. No significant difference was found in the positive rate of viruses between sputum samples and throat swabs of 144 patients (χ²=1.003, P=0.316). However, the positive rate of Streptococcus pneumoniae was significantly higher in sputum samples than in throat swabs (χ²=5.533, P=0.019).

  Conclusion  In the early phase of COVID-19 epidemic in Tongzhou, co-infections of respiratory pathogens were detected in some pneumonia patients. The detection rate of bacteria was higher in sputum samples than in throat swabs.