TY - JOUR T1 - COVID-19 associated pulmonary aspergillosis: a nationwide survey by the Japanese Respiratory Society JF - ERJ Open Research JO - erjor DO - 10.1183/23120541.00402-2021 VL - 7 IS - 4 SP - 00402-2021 AU - Takahiro Takazono AU - Hiroshi Mukae AU - Koichi Izumikawa AU - Naoki Hasegawa AU - Akihito Yokoyama Y1 - 2021/10/01 UR - http://openres.ersjournals.com/content/7/4/00402-2021.abstract N2 - The pandemic of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has rapidly spread worldwide and resulted in more than 3.5 million deaths as of June 2021 [1]. Respiratory viruses, such as the influenza virus, cause direct damage to the airway epithelium, enabling Aspergillus to invade airway tissues. SARS-CoV-2 infection can also increase the risk of Aspergillus superinfection, i.e., the so-called COVID-19 associated pulmonary aspergillosis (CAPA), in severe COVID-19 patients [2]. CAPA has become a serious concern worldwide for the management of severe COVID-19 [2]. Several studies have reported a high incidence of CAPA and associated mortality rates in critical COVID-19 patients [3–12]. However, these reports were from limited facilities in the USA or European countries, and epidemiological data from other regions of the world are limited. Therefore, we conducted a nationwide internet questionnaire surveillance study in Japan to obtain large-scale epidemiological data.An online nationwide questionnaire survey in Japan revealed that the incidence rate of #COVID19 associated pulmonary aspergillosis in critical COVID-19 cases was extremely low (0.54%) compared with those previously reported in the USA and Europe https://bit.ly/2WdFtPjWe acknowledge the members of the COVID-19 expert opinion working group of the Japanese Respiratory Society for their support in this study. ER -