Page 30 - Epidemiological studies on tuberculosis control and respiratory viruses

Chapter 6
respiratory samples were available. During the same study period, respiratory samples of 600 adult patients presenting or admitted to the hospital with clinically suspected respiratory tract infection were collected and analysed. In Table 1 characteristics of the groups are reported.
The 291 asymptomatic and 297 symptomatic HELIUS participants were comparable with regard to ethnicity, education, and smoking status, but asymptomatic participants were more often male and were older. The hospital groups were comparable with regard to sex but there were significant differences between groups with regard to age (Table 1). ICU patients were older than outpatients and inpatients (both, P<0.001). HELIUS and hospital groups were not comparable with regard to gender and age (Table 1). HELIUS participants were younger (median age 49, interquartile range [IQR]=35-56) than hospital patients (median age 56, IQR=39-67) (P<0.001).
Among HELIUS participants, at least one viral pathogen was detected in 12% of participants, with a higher detection rate among symptomatic as compared to asymptomatic participants (18% versus 6%, P<0.001) (Table 1). The most prevalent viruses detected were RV (5%) and hCoV (3%), both of which were found significantly more often in symptomatic individuals. Influenza viruses were only detected in symptomatic and not in asymptomatic individuals. In 31% of patients presenting at or admitted to the hospital at least one viral pathogen was detected, and the most prevalent viruses were InfA (8%) and RV (8%). Comparisons of viral prevalence across five groups revealed significant differences for RV, InfA, RSV, InfB, hMPV, but not for the remaining viruses. Multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that the odds of viral prevalence across groups remained significantly different for RV, InfA and RSV (InfB, hMPV were not investigated) (Table S1).
There were no associations between demographic and epidemiological characteristics and PCR positivity for any respiratory virus, investigated in multivariable logistic regression analysis for each of the five groups separately (data not shown).
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