Detection of citomegalovirus coinfection with SARS-CoV-2 in COVID-19 patients in Kirkuk

This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of Cytomegalyvirus in blood samples of different clinical status of COVID-19 patients. A cross-sectional hospital-based study was carried out in Kirkuk city from the beginning of September 2022 to the end of December 2022 on patients who admitted to Alshifaa Epidemiological Hospital the study included 180 Patients suspected to have COVID-19 infection with age range 30-70 years. The study also included 60 healthy persons as a control group. Each participant's nasopharyngeal swabs were placed in Viral Transport Medium tubes (VTM). The VTM tubes were combined, sealed, labeled, sent to the lab within an hour, and stored in deep freeze until real-time PCR extraction and amplification assays for SARS COV-2 virus detection. Blood was collected by vein puncture for determination of CMV IgM by ELISA the study showed that the prevalence of CMV among covid-19 was 32.14% and most of them were with severe COVID-19 infection. The study showed that the severity of COVID-19 infection increased with age and male sex as and this is study most of patient with severe COVID-19 infection. The study showed that C-RP and PCT level was elevated significantly in COVID-19 Patients coinfected with CMV (10.13±3.36 mg/dl) followed by COVID-19 Patients without CMV infection (8.31±2.65 mg/dl) and the lowest mean was in the healthy control group. The study showed that Lymphocytes level was reduced significantly in COVID-19 Patients coinfected with CMV (1.45±0.56 cells×109/L) followed by COVID-19 Patients without CMV infection (1.99±0.81 cells×109/L) and in this study The most common initial symptoms among COVID-19 coinfected with CMV were fever, dry cough, and fatigue.