Prevalence of Mycoplasma pneumonia Coinfection among Patients with COVID-19: A Systematic Review

COVID-19 pneumonia signs and symptoms are not specific and it may be similar to other cases of pneumonia caused by other microorganisms such as Mycoplasma pneumonia. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of M. pneumonia co-infection among patients with COVID-19 by a systematic review and meta-analysis. Two authors performed the search process independently in Scopus, Web of sciences, and PubMed for studies reporting COVID-19-associated Mycoplasma pneumonia co-infections published in the English language from December 2019 to 1st June 2020. The MeSH terms used in the present review were; “COVID-19”, “co-infection”, “secondary infection”, “2019 novel coronavirus”, “2019-nCoV”, “COVID-19 virus”, “coronavirus disease 2019 virus”, “Mycoplasma pneumoniae”, “M. pneumoniae”, “prevalence”, and “respiratory pathogens”. Data analyzed using Comprehensive Meta-analysis (CMA) software. Heterogeneity among included studies was checked by I2 statistic and the Q2 test. M. pneumonia co-infection was varied between 1 and 40.6% in the included studies. The combined prevalence of M. pneumoniae co-infection among patients with COVID-19 was reported by 17% (95% CI: 7.4–34.3). Overall, our systematic review and meta-analysis showed a quite high co-infection of M. pneumonia in patients with COVID-19 infection, therefore, routine diagnostic tests are recommended for respiratory pathogens like M. pneumonia, because on-time treatment has a beneficial effect on patient survival. Also, an increasing number of cases of asymptomatic COVID-19 infection, the differentiation and diagnosis of pneumonia caused by COVID-19 from non-COVID-19 pneumonia be considered. It helps avoid unnecessary quarantine and waste of medical resources.