Author(s)

Alessandra Gomes Mariscal¹, Beatriz Fernanda Siqueira Matias¹, Cíntia Batista de Almeida¹, Nadir Cléia Alves de Santana¹, Simone Matos de Campos¹, Roseli de Souza², Klaucia Rodrigues Vasconcelos^2,3, Margareth Léa da Silva Maia⁴, Cristiane Coimbra de Paula^1,2,5, Diniz Pereira Leite Júnior^1,6,7*

¹Faculdade EducareMT, Cuiabá, Brazil.
²Centro Universitário de Várzea Grande (UNIVAG), Várzea Grande, Brazil.
³Laboratório Central de Saúde Pública do Estado de Mato Grosso (LACEN), Cuiabá, Brazil.
⁴Instituto Ciências Biomédicas (ICB) Universidade de São Paulo (USP), São Paulo, Brazil.
⁵Laboratory Carlos Chagas, Sabin Group, Cuiabá, Brazil.
⁶Instituto Adolfo Lutz, Center of Parasitology and Micology, Micology Nucleus, São Paulo, Brazil.
⁷Research Laboratory, Medical School, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso (UFMT), Cuiabá, Brazil.

Background: COVID-19 is a rapidly transmissible pneumonia-like illness caused by SARS-CoV-2 that out broke in China in 2019 and is currently circulating worldwide. In the current context of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, complications are observed in clinical settings for the treatment of severe COVID-19 disease in nosocomial settings, due to cases of fungal co-infections. Objective: To carry out a review on fungal infections associated with respiratory infections caused by COVID-19 (Sars-Cov-2) and their aggravation. Methodology: The purpose of this study is to inform the reader about the characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 and the main fungal species that are affecting patients undergoing treatment for severe COVID-19, provoking discussion of the importance of the proposed topic, in relation to co-infections by different fungal microorganisms. Result: 80 scientific studies were selected, resulting from patients with COVID-19 and most commonly observed in patients with a history of comorbidities such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension, kidney disease, severe liver disease, oncological diseases, obesity and with severe COVID-19. These data do not represent the total number of records of the disease in the world, but cases reported by researchers in their series, showing the overlapping of fungal co-infection through the compromised immune status due to the use of therapeutic drugs, dysregulation of the microbiota, age of patients and the severity itself of the severe inflammation caused by COVID-19. Conclusion: The immunosuppression caused by the infection of COVID-19 concomitant with its therapy through corticosteroid therapy and comorbidities of the patients made fungal infections more susceptible, and these interfere in the evolution of the case and in the treatment of COVID-19, being relevant to distinguish secondary infections to therapy and the best possible reconstitution of the clinical picture.

Fungal Coinfections, COVID-19, Coronavirus, Systematic Review

Mariscal, A. , Siqueira Matias, B. , de Almeida, C. , de Santana, N. , de Campos, S. , de Souza, R. , Vasconcelos, K. , da Silva Maia, M. , de Paula, C. and Júnior, D. (2023) Challenges of the Global COVID-19 Pandemic and Invasive Fungal Pathogens in SARS-COV-2 Associations: A Dangerous Relationship. Advances in Microbiology, 13, 1-23. doi: 10.4236/aim.2023.131001.