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253312

Secondary bacterial and fungal infections in critically ill COVID‐19 patients: Impact on antimicrobial resistance

Article

Last updated: 25 Dec 2024

Subjects

-

Tags

Medical microbiology

Abstract

Background: The primary burden among severely ill COVID-19 cases allocated to ICUs is secondary bacterial and fungal infections. Antimicrobial resistance is aggravated more likely by empiric overusing of antimicrobials. This study aimed to assess the microbiological profile of fungal and bacterial superinfections in laboratory confirmed COVID-19 cases and their antimicrobial susceptibility pattern. Methods: Various clinical samples were obtained from 117 critically ill COVID-19 patients in the clinical suspicion of secondary infections for assessing the pathogens accountable for the superinfections and their antimicrobial susceptibility pattern according to standard microbiological procedures. Results: Among 117 COVID-19 patients allocated to ICU, 68 (58%) had secondary infections. The most prevalent infection was of the lower respiratory tract. Most infections were bacterial 85.8%. Gram-negative isolates were the most predominant strains, accounting for 71.7%. among them, Klebsiella pneumoniae 43.4 % and Acinetobacter baumannii 20.7% were the most predominant. Majority of the bacterial strains were multidrug-resistant, all gram-negative strains showed one hundred percent resistance rate to cephalosporins, amoxicillin, and amoxicillin-clavulanic. The lowest resistance was observed for tigecycline. All gram-positive strains were susceptible to linezolid and vancomycin. Additionally, all candida isolates were susceptible to the tested antifungals. Conclusions: In hospitalized severely ill COVID-19 patients, secondary infections are most frequently caused by Gram-negative pathogens exhibiting high rate of antibiotic resistance and are associated with poor outcomes. Strict adherence to infection control measures as well as regular microbiological surveillance are required.

DOI

10.21608/mid.2022.150767.1351

Keywords

Keywords: COVID-19, Secondary infections, Bacterial infections, fungal infections, Antimicrobial resistance

Authors

First Name

Eman

Last Name

Hegazy

MiddleName

E.

Affiliation

Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Tanta University, Egypt

Email

eman.hegazi@med.tanta.edu.eg

City

Tanta

Orcid

0000-0001-9263-1894

First Name

Ibrahim

Last Name

Ibrahim

MiddleName

S.

Affiliation

Chest Department, Faculty of Medicine, Tanta University, Egypt

Email

isalahi72@yahoo.com

City

Tanta

Orcid

-

First Name

Marwa

Last Name

Bahey

MiddleName

Gamal

Affiliation

Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Tanta University, Egypt

Email

marwa.bahey@med.tanta.edu.eg

City

Tanta

Orcid

-

Volume

3

Article Issue

4

Related Issue

37291

Issue Date

2022-11-01

Receive Date

2022-07-17

Publish Date

2022-11-01

Page Start

796

Page End

807

Print ISSN

2682-4132

Online ISSN

2682-4140

Link

https://mid.journals.ekb.eg/article_253312.html

Detail API

https://mid.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=253312

Order

6

Type

Original Article

Type Code

1,157

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Microbes and Infectious Diseases

Publication Link

https://mid.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Secondary bacterial and fungal infections in critically ill COVID‐19 patients: Impact on antimicrobial resistance

Details

Type

Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023