Hospitalized patients with COVID-19 have much higher mortality rates than seasonal flu patients

Although adults hospitalized with COVID-19 are younger and have fewer chronic diseases, they are at higher risk of complications and death than flu patients, according to a retrospective cohort study conducted at the Hospital del Mar in Barcelona

The findings were presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (23-26 April, Lisbon, Portugal)

For the study, researchers analyzed the medical records of 187 patients (average age 76, 55% male) hospitalized with seasonal influenza infection from 2017 to 2019, and from March to May 2020 The medical records of 187 COVID-19 patients (average age 67 years, 49% male) hospitalized during the first wave of the pandemic, all of whom required oxygen therapy on admission

In both cohorts, patients were consecutively enrolled until the required sample size was reached

Influenza patients tended to have more chronic illnesses and problems with daily activities, but were less likely to be overweight or obese (BMI>25) than patients with COVID-19

The analysis found that patients with COVID-19 had a higher risk of severe infection and a higher risk of ICU admission (26 influenza vs 69 COVID-19)

Overall, 15% (29/187) of COVID-19 patients and 5% (10/187) of influenza patients died within 30 days of hospitalization, with higher mortality rates after 90 days (19% vs 6%)

After accounting for various confounding factors including age, comorbidities, sex, disease severity, presence of pneumonia, and corticosteroid treatment, the researchers found that patients with COVID-19 were more likely to die within 30 and 90 days of admission more than three times that of flu patients

Further analysis showed that COVID-19 patients had longer hospital stays than influenza patients (median 14 days compared to 11 days for influenza patients) and longer ICU stays (17 days vs 10 days)

"Our findings suggest that COVID-19 is more deadly than influenza," said lead author Dr.

The authors also acknowledge that there are some limitations to their study, which was conducted in a tertiary hospital in Spain, so the findings may not be generalizable to other populations

Likewise, the patients in this study were infected with SARS-CoV-2 in the first half of 2020, before a vaccine was available, so these patients may not reflect the current situation of hospitalized patients with COVID-19