IPAFLU survey: Invasive Aspergillosis among Patients with Severe Influenza in Intensive Care Units |
Dear colleague,
On behalf of a collaborative research network on Influenza-Associated Aspergillosis (IAA), we would like to invite you to participate in a short survey aiming to evaluate the burden of severe influenza and the awareness of IAA in adult critically ill patients. We also aim to assess the use of galactomannan in the diagnosis of IAA.
Participation is expected to take approximately 5 minutes. Your participation is completely voluntary, and you can stop answering the questions at any time. The questionnaire is anonymous and we will not store personal data, nor will we store metadata.
Background:
Aspergillosis usually occurs in people with severely weakened immune systems. However, several reports describe fatal Aspergillus lung infections in previously healthy patients who were hospitalized with a severe influenza virus infection. The Aspergillus infections involved pneumonia or severe tracheobronchitis (infection of the lung’s airways) (1–4). A retrospective cohort study at seven ICUs in Belgium and the Netherlands found that invasive pulmonary aspergillosis occurred in 19% of patients with severe influenza requiring admission to the ICU. Approximately half of the patients with IAA did not have an immunocompromising condition (1). Also we did not observe characteristic signs of invasive aspergillosis on radiology in contrast to patients with neutropenia.
Severe lung infections caused by influenza and other viruses can damage the respiratory epithelium. Some researchers suspect that this damage can allow Aspergillus to invade and cause infection (5). This process may be similar to how some bacteria, for example Streptococcus pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus, cause pneumonia in patients with severe influenza.
On behalf of the research network on IAA, we would like to thank you in advance for your participation.
Yours sincerely,
Prof. dr. Joost Wauters, UZLeuven, Belgium
dr. Michelle Holtappels, UZLeuven, Belgium
Prof. dr. Frank Van de Veerdonk, RadboudUMC, the Netherlands
Prof. dr. Paul Verweij, RadboudUMC, the Netherlands
Endorsed by the Mycotic Diseases Branch of the Center for Disease Control (CDC, US), the INF section of ESICM and the European Confederation of Medical Mycology (ECMM).
On behalf of a collaborative research network on Influenza-Associated Aspergillosis (IAA), we would like to invite you to participate in a short survey aiming to evaluate the burden of severe influenza and the awareness of IAA in adult critically ill patients. We also aim to assess the use of galactomannan in the diagnosis of IAA.
Participation is expected to take approximately 5 minutes. Your participation is completely voluntary, and you can stop answering the questions at any time. The questionnaire is anonymous and we will not store personal data, nor will we store metadata.
Background:
Aspergillosis usually occurs in people with severely weakened immune systems. However, several reports describe fatal Aspergillus lung infections in previously healthy patients who were hospitalized with a severe influenza virus infection. The Aspergillus infections involved pneumonia or severe tracheobronchitis (infection of the lung’s airways) (1–4). A retrospective cohort study at seven ICUs in Belgium and the Netherlands found that invasive pulmonary aspergillosis occurred in 19% of patients with severe influenza requiring admission to the ICU. Approximately half of the patients with IAA did not have an immunocompromising condition (1). Also we did not observe characteristic signs of invasive aspergillosis on radiology in contrast to patients with neutropenia.
Severe lung infections caused by influenza and other viruses can damage the respiratory epithelium. Some researchers suspect that this damage can allow Aspergillus to invade and cause infection (5). This process may be similar to how some bacteria, for example Streptococcus pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus, cause pneumonia in patients with severe influenza.
On behalf of the research network on IAA, we would like to thank you in advance for your participation.
Yours sincerely,
Prof. dr. Joost Wauters, UZLeuven, Belgium
dr. Michelle Holtappels, UZLeuven, Belgium
Prof. dr. Frank Van de Veerdonk, RadboudUMC, the Netherlands
Prof. dr. Paul Verweij, RadboudUMC, the Netherlands
Endorsed by the Mycotic Diseases Branch of the Center for Disease Control (CDC, US), the INF section of ESICM and the European Confederation of Medical Mycology (ECMM).