Bottom Line:
Few non-hospitalized patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 presented with asthma. Furthermore, the infection has not been found to be a significant contributor to asthma exacerbation.
Reference:
Garcia-Pachon E. et al. Asthma prevalence in patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection detected by RT-PCR not requiring hospitalization. Respir Med (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.rmed.2020.106084
Date Published:
4 July 2020
Synopsis:
Asthma exacerbation are commonly caused by viral infections; however there were few admitted patients infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus that have been reported to have asthma. These findings raise the possibility that asthma may have a possible protective effect against COVID-19. In this study, researchers were interested in studying the prevalence of asthma in non-hospitalized infected patients. Out of 376 patients positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection, 10 patients (2.7%) were previously diagnosed with asthma. In all cases, asthma was well controlled, and infection did not exacerbate existing asthma. These findings support previous evidence of low asthma prevalence among SARS-CoV-2 positive patients, though possible discrepancies of asthma frequency in different countries needs to be considered.
Summary by: Edwin Wong