Prevalence of bacterial co infections among Covid 19 patients in wasit province

Abstract

Background : The pandemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 raised the attention towards bacterial co-infection and its role in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) disease. This study aims to review and identify the prevalence of bacterial co-infection in Iraqi patients as bacterial co-infection played an important role in escalating the morbidity and mortality rate during previous viral outbreaks and pandemics of COVID-19. Materials and Methods: It was collected three hundred eighty clinical samples from covid-19 patients, in Iraqi patients from a period between November 2021 to January 2021, in the bacteriology Unit. Each specimen was cultured on Blood agar, MacConkey agar, Mannitol Salt Agar and Chocolate Agar plates to be isolated, then samples was identified using biochemical test. Result: According to morphological and biochemical tests among collected samples 80 (21.1%) were positive samples, while 300 (78.9%) were negative samples, positive samples included 61(76.2%) gram negative (Gr -ve) and 19 (23.8%) were gram positive (Gr +ve), positive samples were distributed as following, 50 (62.5%) samples K. pneumonia, 3 (3.8%) Pseudomonas aeruginosa, 5 (6.2%) Acinetobacter baumanii, 4 (5%) Micrococcus, 12 (15%) Staphylococcus aureus, 3 (3.8%) Enterococcus cloacae and 3 (3.8%) were Aerococcus viridans.