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Infectious Disorders - Drug Targets

Editor-in-Chief

ISSN (Print): 1871-5265
ISSN (Online): 2212-3989

Research Article

Prevalence, Presentation and Outcome of Secondary Bloodstream Infections among COVID-19 Patients

Author(s): Subhashree Samantaray, Priyabrat Karan, Anuradha Sharma*, Vijayalakshmi Nag, Naveen Dutt, Mahendra Kumar Garg, Pradeep Kumar Bhatia and Sanjeev Misra

Volume 22, Issue 5, 2022

Published on: 21 April, 2022

Article ID: e180422203723 Pages: 8

DOI: 10.2174/1871526522666220418093450

Price: $65

Abstract

Background: The higher mortality rate in COVID-19 patients is still a concern. Though some studies mention that elderly patients with co-morbidities are at higher risk of mortality, some others report uneventful outcomes in young patients even without co-morbidities. Secondary bacterial and fungal infections, especially with nosocomial pathogens are known to be associated with worse outcome in the ongoing pandemic as well as in the previous viral outbreaks. In such a scenario, the outcome of hospitalized COVID-19 patients can be improved by timely identification of secondary infections using appropriate biomarkers and by following appropriate infection control measures to prevent the spread of nosocomial pathogens.

Objective: The study aims to find out the prevalence of bloodstream infections (BSI) among hospitalized COVID-19 patients and to analyze their laboratory markers and outcome by comparing them with those without BSI.

Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, the prevalence of secondary BSI was determined among the hospitalized COVID-19 patients by including 388 blood culture bottles collected from 293 patients, which were received in the microbiology lab within the study period.

Results: The overall prevalence of BSI in COVID-19 patients was 39.5% (116/293), out of which 35.5% (104/293) infections were bacterial, and 4.1% (12/293) were fungal, while 8.9% (26/293) patients grew contaminants, and 51.5% (151/293) were sterile. Common causative agents of secondary BSI were found to be MDR Klebsiella pneumoniae (10.9%) and Acinetobacter baumannii (8.8%) followed by Candida species (4.1%). Patients with co-morbidities like diabetes, hypertension and COPD were at higher risk of developing BSI with significantly higher levels of sepsis markers such as Creactive protein (CRP), procalcitonin, ferritin and Interleukin-6 (IL-6). The mortality rate was significantly higher (60.2%) in patients with BSI compared to the group of patients without BSI.

Conclusion: Our findings suggest the necessity of early diagnosis of the secondary infections using appropriate biomarkers and following proper infection control measures to prevent the spread of the nosocomial infections and improve the outcome of hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

Keywords: COVID-19, Secondary bloodstream infections, sepsis markers, hospital infection control, predisposing factors, outcome.

Graphical Abstract
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