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Gonçalves BP, Hall M, Jassat W, Balan V, Murthy S, Kartsonaki C, Semple MG, Rojek A, Baruch J, Reyes LF, Dasgupta A, Dunning J, Citarella BW, Pritchard M, Martín-Quiros A, Sili U, Baillie JK, Aryal D, Arabi Y, Rashan A, Angheben A, Caoili J, Carrier FM, Harrison EM, Gómez-Junyent J, Figueiredo-Mello C, Douglas JJ, Mat Nor MB, Chow YP, Wong XC, Bertagnolio S, Thwin SS, Streinu-Cercel A, Salazar L, Rishu A, Rangappa R, Ong DSY, Hashmi M, Carson G, Diaz J, Fowler R, Kraemer MUG, Wils EJ, Horby P, Merson L, Olliaro PL. An international observational study to assess the impact of the Omicron variant emergence on the clinical epidemiology of COVID-19 in hospitalised patients. eLife 2022; 11:e80556. [PMID: 36197074 PMCID: PMC9534549 DOI: 10.7554/elife.80556] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2022] [Accepted: 09/07/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Whilst timely clinical characterisation of infections caused by novel SARS-CoV-2 variants is necessary for evidence-based policy response, individual-level data on infecting variants are typically only available for a minority of patients and settings. Methods Here, we propose an innovative approach to study changes in COVID-19 hospital presentation and outcomes after the Omicron variant emergence using publicly available population-level data on variant relative frequency to infer SARS-CoV-2 variants likely responsible for clinical cases. We apply this method to data collected by a large international clinical consortium before and after the emergence of the Omicron variant in different countries. Results Our analysis, that includes more than 100,000 patients from 28 countries, suggests that in many settings patients hospitalised with Omicron variant infection less often presented with commonly reported symptoms compared to patients infected with pre-Omicron variants. Patients with COVID-19 admitted to hospital after Omicron variant emergence had lower mortality compared to patients admitted during the period when Omicron variant was responsible for only a minority of infections (odds ratio in a mixed-effects logistic regression adjusted for likely confounders, 0.67 [95% confidence interval 0.61-0.75]). Qualitatively similar findings were observed in sensitivity analyses with different assumptions on population-level Omicron variant relative frequencies, and in analyses using available individual-level data on infecting variant for a subset of the study population. Conclusions Although clinical studies with matching viral genomic information should remain a priority, our approach combining publicly available data on variant frequency and a multi-country clinical characterisation dataset with more than 100,000 records allowed analysis of data from a wide range of settings and novel insights on real-world heterogeneity of COVID-19 presentation and clinical outcome. Funding Bronner P. Gonçalves, Peter Horby, Gail Carson, Piero L. Olliaro, Valeria Balan, Barbara Wanjiru Citarella, and research costs were supported by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and Wellcome [215091/Z/18/Z, 222410/Z/21/Z, 225288/Z/22/Z]; and Janice Caoili and Madiha Hashmi were supported by the UK FCDO and Wellcome [222048/Z/20/Z]. Peter Horby, Gail Carson, Piero L. Olliaro, Kalynn Kennon and Joaquin Baruch were supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation [OPP1209135]; Laura Merson was supported by University of Oxford's COVID-19 Research Response Fund - with thanks to its donors for their philanthropic support. Matthew Hall was supported by a Li Ka Shing Foundation award to Christophe Fraser. Moritz U.G. Kraemer was supported by the Branco Weiss Fellowship, Google.org, the Oxford Martin School, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the European Union Horizon 2020 project MOOD (#874850). The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission. Contributions from Srinivas Murthy, Asgar Rishu, Rob Fowler, James Joshua Douglas, François Martin Carrier were supported by CIHR Coronavirus Rapid Research Funding Opportunity OV2170359 and coordinated out of Sunnybrook Research Institute. Contributions from Evert-Jan Wils and David S.Y. Ong were supported by a grant from foundation Bevordering Onderzoek Franciscus; and Andrea Angheben by the Italian Ministry of Health "Fondi Ricerca corrente-L1P6" to IRCCS Ospedale Sacro Cuore-Don Calabria. The data contributions of J.Kenneth Baillie, Malcolm G. Semple, and Ewen M. Harrison were supported by grants from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR; award CO-CIN-01), the Medical Research Council (MRC; grant MC_PC_19059), and by the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit (HPRU) in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections at University of Liverpool in partnership with Public Health England (PHE) (award 200907), NIHR HPRU in Respiratory Infections at Imperial College London with PHE (award 200927), Liverpool Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre (grant C18616/A25153), NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at Imperial College London (award IS-BRC-1215-20013), and NIHR Clinical Research Network providing infrastructure support. All funders of the ISARIC Clinical Characterisation Group are listed in the appendix.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bronner P Gonçalves
- ISARIC, Pandemic Sciences Institute, University of OxfordOxfordUnited Kingdom
| | - Matthew Hall
- Big Data Institute, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of OxfordOxfordUnited Kingdom
| | - Waasila Jassat
- National Institute for Communicable Diseases, South Africa; Right to CareJohannesburgSouth Africa
| | - Valeria Balan
- ISARIC, Pandemic Sciences Institute, University of OxfordOxfordUnited Kingdom
| | - Srinivas Murthy
- Faculty of Medicine, University of British ColumbiaVancouverCanada
| | - Christiana Kartsonaki
- MRC Population Health Research Unit, Clinical Trials Service Unit and Epidemiological Studies Unit, Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of OxfordOxfordUnited Kingdom
| | - Malcolm G Semple
- Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, University of LiverpoolLiverpoolUnited Kingdom
- Respiratory Medicine, Alder Hey Children's Hospital, University of LiverpoolLiverpoolUnited Kingdom
| | - Amanda Rojek
- ISARIC, Pandemic Sciences Institute, University of OxfordOxfordUnited Kingdom
- Royal Melbourne HospitalMelbourneAustralia
- Centre for Integrated Critical Care, University of MelbourneMelbourneAustralia
| | - Joaquín Baruch
- ISARIC, Pandemic Sciences Institute, University of OxfordOxfordUnited Kingdom
| | - Luis Felipe Reyes
- ISARIC, Pandemic Sciences Institute, University of OxfordOxfordUnited Kingdom
- Universidad de La SabanaChiaColombia
- Clinica Universidad de La SabanaChiaColombia
| | - Abhishek Dasgupta
- Department of Computer Science, University of OxfordOxfordUnited Kingdom
- Department of Biology, University of OxfordOxfordUnited Kingdom
| | - Jake Dunning
- ISARIC, Pandemic Sciences Institute, University of OxfordOxfordUnited Kingdom
| | | | - Mark Pritchard
- ISARIC, Pandemic Sciences Institute, University of OxfordOxfordUnited Kingdom
| | | | - Uluhan Sili
- Department of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, School of Medicine, Marmara UniversityIstanbulTurkey
| | - J Kenneth Baillie
- Roslin Institute, University of EdinburghEdinburghUnited Kingdom
- Intensive Care Unit, Royal Infirmary of EdinburghEdinburghUnited Kingdom
| | - Diptesh Aryal
- Critical Care and Anesthesia, Nepal Mediciti HospitalLalitpurNepal
| | - Yaseen Arabi
- King Abdullah International Medical Research Center and King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health SciencesRiyadhSaudi Arabia
| | - Aasiyah Rashan
- Network for Improving Critical care Systems and TrainingColomboSri Lanka
| | - Andrea Angheben
- Department of Infectious, Tropical Diseases and Microbiology (DITM), IRCCS Sacro Cuore Don Calabria Hospital, Negrar di ValpolicellaVeronaItaly
| | | | - François Martin Carrier
- Department of Anesthesiology, Centre hospitalier de l'Université de MontréalMontréalCanada
- Department of Medicine, Critical Care Division, Centre hospitalier de l'Université de MontréalMontréalCanada
- Carrefour de l'innovation et santé des populations, Centre de recherche du Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CRCHUM)MontréalCanada
- Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Université de MontréalMontréalCanada
| | - Ewen M Harrison
- Centre for Medical Informatics, The University of Edinburgh, Usher Institute of Population Health Sciences and InformaticsEdinburghUnited Kingdom
| | - Joan Gómez-Junyent
- Department of Infectious Diseases, Hospital del Mar, Infectious Pathology and Antimicrobial Research Group (IPAR), Institut Hospital del Mar d'Investigacions Mèdiques (IMIM), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), CEXS-Universitat Pompeu FabraBarcelonaSpain
| | | | | | | | - Yock Ping Chow
- Clinical Research Centre, Sunway Medical Centre, Selangor Darul EhsanSelangorMalaysia
| | - Xin Ci Wong
- Digital Health Research and Innovation Unit, Institute for Clinical Research, National Institutes of Health (NIH)SelangorMalaysia
| | | | | | - Anca Streinu-Cercel
- Carol Davila University of Medicine and PharmacyBucharestRomania
- National Institute for Infectious Diseases "Prof. Dr. Matei Bals"BucharestRomania
| | | | - Asgar Rishu
- Department of Critical Care Medicine, Sunnybrook Health Sciences CentreTorontoCanada
| | | | - David SY Ong
- Department of Medical Microbiology and Infection Control, Franciscus Gasthuis & VlietlandRotterdamNetherlands
| | - Madiha Hashmi
- Critical Care Asia and Ziauddin UniversityKarachiPakistan
| | - Gail Carson
- ISARIC, Pandemic Sciences Institute, University of OxfordOxfordUnited Kingdom
| | - Janet Diaz
- World Health OrganizationGenèveSwitzerland
| | - Rob Fowler
- Department of Critical Care Medicine, Sunnybrook Health Sciences CentreTorontoCanada
| | - Moritz UG Kraemer
- Department of Biology, University of OxfordOxfordUnited Kingdom
- Pandemic Sciences Institute, University of OxfordOxfordUnited Kingdom
| | - Evert-Jan Wils
- Department of Intensive Care, Franciscus Gasthuis & VlietlandRotterdamNetherlands
| | - Peter Horby
- ISARIC, Pandemic Sciences Institute, University of OxfordOxfordUnited Kingdom
| | - Laura Merson
- ISARIC, Pandemic Sciences Institute, University of OxfordOxfordUnited Kingdom
- Infectious Diseases Data Observatory, Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, University of OxfordOxfordUnited Kingdom
| | - Piero L Olliaro
- ISARIC, Pandemic Sciences Institute, University of OxfordOxfordUnited Kingdom
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