simultaneous detection of multiple respiratory viruses among sars-cov-2-positive and negative patients by multiplex taqman one-step real-time pcr

Background: severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (sars-cov-2) has clinical manifestations similar to other common respiratory viral infections. there are limited data on the frequency of viral respiratory coinfection among patients infected with sars-cov-2 in iran. objectives: this cross-sectional study investigated the prevalence of multiple respiratory viruses among sars-cov-2-positive and negative patients during the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic in iran. methods: we included oropharyngeal/nasopharyngeal swab specimens of patients suspected of covid-19 from december 2020 to march 2021. a reliable multiplex taqman one-step real-time pcr method was employed to detect 17 viral respiratory pathogens simultaneously. descriptive analyses were performed to characterize the specimens concerning age, gender, clinical manifestations, and underlying disease. results: multiple respiratory viruses with a frequency of 18.78% were detected in 197 studied patients. human metapneumovirus was the most prevalent pathogen detected in both sars-cov-2-positive (n = 7, 7.7%) and negative (n = 7, 6.6%) patients. moreover, the frequency rate of viral infection was almost the same in both sars-cov-2-positive (18.68%) and negative (18.86%) patients. altogether, there were no differences in baseline demographic characteristics such as age, sex, clinical symptoms, and comorbidities between the two groups (p > 0.05). conclusions: the data presented here expand our understanding of the epidemiology of multiple types of viral respiratory pathogens in suspected covid-19 patients. therefore, simultaneous screening of other viral respiratory pathogens will be helpful for clinicians and researchers interested in the control of viral respiratory tract infections.