Volume 24, Number 7—July 2018
Dispatch
Detection of Respiratory Viruses in Deceased Persons, Spain, 2017
Ana Navascués, Itziar Casado, Alejandra Pérez-García, Aitziber Aguinaga, Iván Martínez-Baz, Yugo Floristán, Carmen Ezpeleta, and Jesús Castilla
Table
Factors associated with postmortem detection of influenza and other respiratory viruses among deceased persons, Spain, 2017
| Influenza virus | Respiratory syncytial virus | Coronavirus | Rhinovirus | Any respiratory virus* | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total |
57 |
10 (18) |
7 (12) |
7 (12) |
4 (7) |
27 (47) |
|
| Sex | 0.189 | ||||||
| M | 28 | 3 (11) | 4 (14) | 6 (21) | 4 (14) | 16 (57) | |
| F |
29 |
7 (24) |
3 (10) |
1 (3) |
0 |
11 (38) |
|
| Age, y | 0.889 | ||||||
| 65–74 | 7 | 2 (29) | 0 | 0 | 1 (14) | 3 (43) | |
| 75–84 | 16 | 3 (19) | 3 (19) | 1 (6) | 0 | 7 (44) | |
| >85 |
34 |
5 (15) |
4 (12) |
6 (18) |
3 (9) |
17 (50) |
|
| Major chronic conditions‡ | 50 | 8 (16) | 7 (14) | 6 (12) | 4 (8) | 24 (48) | 1.000 |
| Nursing home residence | 5 | 1 (20) | 0 | 1 (20) | 1 (20) | 2 (40) | 1.000 |
| Hospitalization before death | 12 | 3 (25) | 2 (17) | 2 (17) | 3 (25) | 9 (75) | 0.050 |
| Premortem diagnosis |
4 |
3 (75) |
1 (25) |
0 |
0 |
4 (100) |
0.044 |
| Cause of death | |||||||
| Neoplasms | 16 | 1 (6) | 1 (6) | 4 (25) | 0 | 6 (38) | 0.391 |
| Nervous system condition | 8 | 2 (25) | 0 | 1 (13) | 0 | 3 (38) | 0.709 |
| Circulatory system condition | 14 | 3 (21) | 2 (14) | 0 | 1 (7) | 6 (43) | 0.765 |
| Respiratory system condition | 7 | 2 (29) | 3 (43) | 0 | 1 (14) | 6 (86) | 0.045 |
| Other causes | 12 | 2 (17) | 1 (8) | 2 (17) | 2 (7) | 6 (50) | 1.000 |
*One person’s specimen tested positive for both coronavirus and rhinovirus.
†The 2-tailed Fisher exact test was used to compare the proportions of patients with any respiratory virus infection for the listed variables.
‡Major chronic conditions included heart disease, respiratory disease, renal disease, cancer, diabetes mellitus, cirrhosis, dementia, stroke, immunodeficiency, rheumatic disease, and morbid obesity.
Page created: June 18, 2018
Page updated: June 18, 2018
Page reviewed: June 18, 2018
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