mBio . The Unrecognized Threat of Secondary Bacterial Infections with COVID-19

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mBio


. 2020 Aug 7;11(4):e01806-20.
doi: 10.1128/mBio.01806-20.
The Unrecognized Threat of Secondary Bacterial Infections with COVID-19


Mylene Vaillancourt ¹ , Peter Jorth ²



Affiliations

• PMID: 32769090
• DOI: 10.1128/mBio.01806-20

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is the greatest pandemic of our generation, with 16 million people affected and 650,000 deaths worldwide so far. One of the risk factors associated with COVID-19 is secondary bacterial pneumonia. In recent studies on COVID-19 patients, secondary bacterial infections were significantly associated with worse outcomes and death despite antimicrobial therapies. In the past, the intensive use of antibiotics during the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) pandemic led to increases in the prevalence of multidrug-resistant bacteria. The rising number of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and our decreasing capacity to eradicate them not only render us more vulnerable to bacterial infections but also weaken us during viral pandemics. The COVID-19 pandemic reminds us of the great health challenges we are facing, especially regarding antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; antibiotic resistance; coinfection; secondary bacterial infection.