COVID-19-Associated Pulmonary Aspergillosis: A Year-Long Retrospective Case Series
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Please find my comments below.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Dear Authors
With great interest I read your study about CAPA in critically ill patients with COVID-19 at two tertiary hospitals in the UK.
You highlighted an important topic for the ICU community - CAPA in severly ill patients with COVID-19. Most important issues around this complicated topic are outlined.
I have only two comments:
Line 191: COVID-19, not COVID
Methods: Please check with the editorial office if a an approval from local ethics committee is necessary before publication or not.
Author Response
Many thanks for your comments and suggestions.
Line 191 COVID-19: Changed
Methods: Please check with the editorial office if a an approval from local ethics committee is necessary before publication or not.
We did not seek ethical approval as it was not required because:
- Patients were not randomised
- There were no changes to treatment or service for/to patients
- Results were not generalisable as the evaluation was a snap shot of Newcastle Hospitals.
Additionally: The Data was all retrospective and freely available to the treating clinicians (authors). The study was looking for the prevalence and associated co-morbidities of those admitted with the condition and not analysing identifiable data. The study was registered as a service evaluation/clinical audit and therefore the governance falls within registration on the clinical effectiveness register of the Trust.
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The revised version improved the quality of the manuscript.
