Outcomes similar with hospital-acquired COVID-19 vs. flu, Swiss study finds
A comparison of patients who developed symptomatic omicron-variant COVID-19 or flu during hospitalization found similar case-fatality rates at 6.2% and 6.1%, respectively. ICU admission was required for 2.4% of those with COVID-19 versus 2.6% with influenza.
Patients who acquire COVID-19 or influenza in the hospital have similar mortality rates, a recent study found.
The retrospective study used the nationwide, hospital-based surveillance system in Switzerland to look at patients with health care-associated COVID-19 or influenza. All had symptoms and a positive polymerase chain reaction test three days or more after admission. Data on COVID-19 patients were from 2022 and 2023, while data on flu patients were from 2018 to 2023. Patients were treated at a total of nine hospitals. Results were published by Clinical Infectious Diseases on Nov. 13.
Among the 2,901 patients with omicron-variant COVID-19 and 868 patients with flu, the case-fatality rates were similar, at 6.2% and 6.1%, respectively (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.91; 95% CI, 0.67 to 1.24). Similar proportions were also admitted to the ICU: 2.4% with COVID-19 versus 2.6% with influenza. The median time from hospital admission to positive SARS-CoV-2 test was 13 days; for influenza, it was 11 days. The results suggest that the in-hospital mortality risk of health care-associated COVID-19 and health care-associated influenza are comparable, according to the study authors.
“Our findings support infection prevention and control measures, as well as hospital policies, moving away from the specific and extensive COVID-19 measures, and considering measures for respiratory viruses, more broadly,” they wrote. “While the relative hazard may be comparable, it is important to recognize that the absolute number of patients with healthcare-associated COVID-19 (Omicron) was three-fold higher than the number of patients with healthcare-associated influenza.”
Limitations of the study include incomplete data on vaccination status and antiviral treatment, the authors noted.
