Low incidence of co-infection, but high incidence of ICU-acquired infections in critically ill patients with COVID-19

Abstract

Lansbury et al. recently reported in this journal that 7% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients had a bacterial co-infection. This proportion increased to 14% in studies that only included patients who required admission to the intensive care unit (ICU)1Louise Lansbury Benjamin Lim Vadsala Baskaran Shen Lim Wei Co-infections in people with COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis.J Infect. 2020; 81: 266-275https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2020.05.046Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF Scopus (14) Google Scholar. ICU admission is a risk factor for hospital-acquired infections and nosocomial infections by multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria 2Jean-Louis Vincent Jordi Rello John Marshall Eliezer Silva Antonio Anzueto Martin Claude D. et al. International study of the prevalence and outcomes of infection in intensive care units.JAMA. 2009; 302: 2323-2329https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2009.1754Crossref Scopus (1775) Google Scholar,3Hui Ang Xuan Sun Risk factors for multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria infection in intensive care units: A meta-analysis.Int J Nurs Pract. 2018; 24: e12644https://doi.org/10.1111/ijn.12644Crossref Scopus (6) Google Scholar. Here, we report our findings of a retrospective cohort study to asses the incidence of co-infections, ICU-acquired infections and their relation to mortality in patients with COVID-19.