While it is reported that COVID-19 patients are more prone to secondary bacterial infec-tions, which are strongly linked to the severity of complications of the disease, bacterial coinfections associated with COVID-19 are not widely studied. This work aimed to investigate the prevalence of bacterial coinfections and associated antibiotic resistance profiles among hospitalised COVID-19 patients. Age, gender, weight, bacterial identities, and antibiotic sensitivity profiles were collected retrospectively for 108 patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) and non-ICU ward of a single center in Saudi Arabia. ICU patients (60%) showed a significantly higher percentage of bacterial coinfections in sputum (74%) and blood (38%) samples, compared to non-ICU. Acinetobacter baumannii (56%) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (56%) were the most prevalent bacterial species from ICU patients, presenting with full resistance to all tested antibiotics except colistin. By contrast, samples of non-ICU patients exhibited infections with Escherichia coli (31%) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (15%) predominantly, with elevated resistance of E. coli to piperacillin/tazobactam and trimetho-prim/sulfamethoxazole. This alarming correlation between multi-drug resistant bacterial coinfection and admission to the ICU requires more attention and precaution with prescribed antibiotics to limit the spread of resistant bacteria and improve therapeutic management.
CITATION STYLE
Bazaid, A. S., Barnawi, H., Qanash, H., Alsaif, G., Aldarhami, A., Gattan, H., … Alfouzan, F. (2022). Bacterial Coinfection and Antibiotic Resistance Profiles among Hospitalised COVID-19 Patients. Microorganisms, 10(3). https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms10030495
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