Bacterial co-infection in patients with SARS-CoV-2 in the Kingdom of Bahrain
Nermin Kamal Saeed, Safaa Alkhawaja, Jameela Alsalman, Safiya Almusawi, Noor AlBalooshi, Mohammed Al-Biltagi
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic presents a significant challenge to the medical profession, increasing in the presence of microbial co-infection. Bacterial and Fungal co-infections increase the risk of morbidity and mortality in patients with COVID-19. AIM: To study the bacterial profile in patients with COVID-19 who needed admission to receive treatment in the main centres concerned with managing COVID-19 disease in the Kingdom of Bahrain. METHODS: The study was a retrospective observational analysis of the bacterial profile and the bacterial resistance in patients with confirmed COVID-19 disease who needed admission to receive treatment in the main centres assigned to manage patients with COVID-19 disease in the Kingdom of Bahrain from February to October 2020. We used the electronic patients' records and the microbiology laboratory data to identify patients' demographics, clinical data, microbial profile, hospital or community-acquired, and the outcomes. RESULTS: ). The hospital-acquired infection formed 73.8%, 61.6%, 100% gram-negative, gram-positive and fungaemia. Most of the hospital-acquired infection occurred in the second period with a higher death rate than community-acquired infections. CONCLUSION: Bacterial and fungal co-infections in patients admitted with confirmed COVID-19 disease pose higher morbidity and mortality risks than those without co-infections. We should perform every effort to minimize these risks.