Cystic fibrosis patients do not appear to have a greater risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection based on published evidence to date, according to a recent literature review.

Researchers used EMBASE and Medline to perform a systematic review between April and December 2020 to assess whether individuals with cystic fibrosis are at elevated risk for SARS-COV-2 infection and development of COVID-19.

Their review identified six studies that described outcomes of patients with COVID-19 with exposure constituting cystic fibrosis history. The six studies that met inclusion criteria reported on 339 individuals with cystic fibrosis who contracted COVID-19.

“It is not clear whether individuals with [cystic fibrosis] are at higher risk of COVID-19 or its adverse consequences,”Hannah R. Mathew,BScmedical student in the department of biological sciences at the University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada, and colleagues wrote in BMC Pulmonary Medicine. “This topic has been of great concern due to the importance of recurrent respiratory viral infections in disease perturbation and pulmonary exacerbations.”

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