Diagnosis and Antifungal Prophylaxis for COVID-19 Associated Pulmonary Aspergillosis

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has redemonstrated the importance of the fungal-after-viral phenomenon, and the question of whether prophylaxis should be used to prevent COVID-19-associated pulmonary aspergillosis (CAPA). A distinct pathophysiology from invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA), CAPA has an incidence that ranges from 5% to 30%, with significant mortality. The aim of this work was to describe the current diagnostic landscape of CAPA and review the existing literature on antifungal prophylaxis. A variety of definitions for CAPA have been described in the literature and the performance of the diagnostic tests for CAPA is limited, making diagnosis a challenge. There are only six studies that have investigated antifungal prophylaxis for CAPA. The two studied drugs have been posaconazole, either a liquid formulation via an oral gastric tube or an intravenous formulation, and inhaled amphotericin. While some studies have revealed promising results, they are limited by small sample sizes and bias inherent to retrospective studies. Additionally, as the COVID-19 pandemic changes and we see fewer intubated and critically ill patients, it will be more important to recognize these fungal-after-viral complications among non-critically ill, immunocompromised patients. Randomized controlled trials are needed to better understand the role of antifungal prophylaxis.

Invasive Fungal Infections in Inpatient Solid Organ Transplant Recipients With COVID-19: A Multicenter Retrospective Cohort

“…With increased vaccine availability, improved outpatient therapies, and the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 variants, we may be seeing fewer patients with COVID-19 who become critically ill and, consequently, a lower prevalence of classic CAPA. 29 However, physicians should be mindful of this “fungal-after-viral” phenomenon in patients with immunocompromised conditions, even with lesser severity of COVID-19 illness, and the prevalence of CAIFIs in SOTRs in the omicron wave was still 5% in this cohort.…”