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Multicenter Study
. 2022 Jun 13;22(1):540.
doi: 10.1186/s12879-022-07508-x.

Increased risk of severe COVID-19 in hospitalized patients with SARS-CoV-2 Alpha variant infection: a multicentre matched cohort study

Guillaume Martin-Blondel  1   2 , François-Xavier Lescure  3 , Lambert Assoumou  4 , Charlotte Charpentier  5 , Jean-Marc Chapplain  6 , Thomas Perpoint  7 , Gaspard Grouteau  8 , Hugues Cordel  9 , Gilles Pialoux  10 , Jérome Pacanowski  11 , Michael Thy  3 , Adeline Bauvois  12 , Didier Laureillard  13 , Fadia Hamrouni  4 , Michèle Algarte-Genin  4 , Julien Poissy  14 , Diane Descamps  5 , Dominique Costagliola  4 ; CoCliCo Study Group
Collaborators, Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Increased risk of severe COVID-19 in hospitalized patients with SARS-CoV-2 Alpha variant infection: a multicentre matched cohort study

Guillaume Martin-Blondel et al. BMC Infect Dis. .

Abstract

Background: The impact of the variant of concern (VOC) Alpha on the severity of COVID-19 has been debated. We report our analysis in France.

Methods: We conducted an exposed/unexposed cohort study with retrospective data collection, comparing patients infected by VOC Alpha to contemporaneous patients infected by historical lineages. Participants were matched on age (± 2.5 years), sex and region of hospitalization. The primary endpoint was the proportion of hospitalized participants with severe COVID-19, defined as a WHO-scale > 5 or by the need of a non-rebreather mask, occurring up to day 29 after admission. We used a logistic regression model stratified on each matched pair and accounting for factors known to be associated with the severity of the disease.

Results: We included 650 pairs of patients hospitalized between Jan 1, 2021, and Feb 28, 2021, in 47 hospitals. Median age was 70 years and 61.3% of participants were male. The proportion of participants with comorbidities was high in both groups (85.0% vs 90%, p = 0.004). Infection by VOC Alpha was associated with a higher odds of severe COVID-19 (41.7% vs 38.5%-aOR = 1.33 95% CI [1.03-1.72]).

Conclusion: Infection by the VOC Alpha was associated with a higher odds of severe COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; Severity; Variant of concern Alpha.

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Conflict of interest statement

DC reports HIV grants from Janssen (2017–2018, 2019–2020), personal fees from Janssen (2018) and Gilead (2018, 2020) for lectures on HIV outside the submitted work. CC reports personal fees from Janssen (2018), MSD (2019), Gilead (2018–2020), Theratechnologies (2020) and ViiV Healthcare (2018–2020). HC reports personal fees from MSD (2020) and ViiV Healthcare (2020) for lectures on HIV. GMB reports support for attending meetings and personal fees from BMS, MSD, Janssen, Sanofi, Pfizer and Gilead for lectures outside the submitted work. JP reports support for attending meetings and personal fees from Gilead, Pfizer and Eumedica Gilead for lectures. DD reports personal fees from Gilead, ViiV Healthcare and Janssen for participation on an advisory Board. Other authors declare that they have no competing interest.

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