Phenotypic Analyses of Blood Culture Contaminants in COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit Using Hierarchical Clustering During the Pandemic First Wave in Surabaya

Abstract

Introduction: Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) has been reported as an epidemic in December 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei Province, People's Republic of China. Hospitalized COVID-19 patients, especially those with worse clinical appearance and on a ventilator, need thorough diagnostic tests as COVID-19 patients tend to mimic bacterial infections. Positive blood culture in COVID-19 patients is more likely to be contaminants and hospital-associated infections than primary co-infections. This research aims to phenotypically group data of contaminant coagulase negative staphylococci (CoNS) isolates using hierarchical clustering. Methods: This is a descriptive study presenting a collection of CoNS culture data performed by a microbiology laboratory of a COVID-19 referral hospital from 26 March 2020 to 31 March 2021. Hierarchical clustering was performed using statistical software. Results: Hierarchical clustering was performed on Staphylococcus epidetmidis (n = 26), S. haemolyticus (n = 19), and S. hominis (n = 16). Two dominant ID clusters and one dominant MIC cluster were found in each species. Conclusion: Dominant CoNS isolates were found. The isolates may have been transferred into the COVID-19 isolation room by chance. This method can be applied to facilities with limited-resource settings.