Abstract
Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) is an ongoing global pandemic that is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The severity and mortality rates of COVID-19 are affected by several factors, such as respiratory diseases, diabetes, and hypertension. Bacterial coinfections are another factor that could contribute to the severity of COVID-19. Limited studies have investigated morbidity and mortality due to microbial coinfections in COVID-19 patients. Here, we retrospectively studied the effects of bacterial coinfections on intensive care unit (ICU)-admitted patients with COVID-19 in Asir province, Saudi Arabia. We analyzed electronic medical records of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 at Asir Central Hospital. A total of 34 patients were included, and the clinical data of 16 patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 only and 18 patients coinfected with SARS-CoV-2 and bacterial infections were analyzed in our study. Our data showed that the length of stay at the hospital for patients infected with both SARS-CoV-2 and bacterial infection was 35.2 days, compared to 16.2 days for patients infected with only SARS-CoV-2 (p = 0.0001). In addition, higher mortality rates were associated with patients in the coinfection group compared to the SARS-CoV-2-only infected group (50% vs. 18.7%, respectively). The study also showed that gram-negative bacteria are the most commonly isolated bacteria in COVID-19 patients. To conclude, this study found that individuals with COVID-19 who presented with bacterial infections are at higher risk for a longer stay at the hospital and potentially death. Further studies with a larger population are warranted to better understand the clinical outcomes of COVID-19 with bacterial infections.
Highlights
We showed that 53% of the study subjects had secondary bacterial infections when evaluated ≥ 48 h after intensive care unit (ICU) admission, indicating a high prevalence of nosocomial bacterial infections among COVID-19 patients in Saudi Arabia
Multicentral future studies with a larger sample size are warranted to investigate the relationship between secondary bacterial infections and. To our knowledge, this is the first study to assess the burden of secondary bacterial coinfection among COVID-19 patients in Saudi Arabia
We showed a high prevalence of hospital-acquired bacterial infections among our ICU-admitted COVID-19 patients (53%) between 1 April 2020 and 1 June 2020
Summary
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an ongoing global pandemic disease that is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) [1]. Since late 2019, SARS-CoV-2 has resulted in more than 274 million confirmed cases, and approximately 5.4 million deaths have been reported globally [2]. SARS-CoV-2 infections can result in a wide range of clinical manifestations, which can be asymptomatic, mild, or symptomatic, resulting in severe pneumonia and multiorgan involvement that may lead to death [3]. COVID-19 may result in mild or moderate manifestations; patients with comorbidities may require intensive care and mechanical ventilation, 4.0/).
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