Bacteriological Characteristics of COVID-19 Patients Nosocomially Co-infected at a Designated Hospital: A Retrospective Study

Abstract

Background: Bacterial co-infection in patients infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a critical factor that increases the complexity and treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Methods: We collected the clinical laboratory data of 1799 patients with confirmed COVID-19 who were admitted to Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan, China, between January 1 to April 26, 2020. The bacterial co-infection along with disease progression was analyzed. Other inflammatory markers, including C-reactive protein (CRP), white blood cells (WBC), lymphocytes (L), neutrocytes (N), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and procalcitonin (PCT), were assessed to estimate the progression of COVID-19. Results: We found that 191 of the 1799 (10.62%) patients had bacterial co-infection. The most prevalent causative agents for bacterial co-infection were Klebsiella pneumoniae (91 cases, 5.06%) and Acinetobacter baumannii (66 cases, 3.67%). The most patients with bacterial co-infection showed extensive drug-resistance. The outcomes of patients with bacterial co-infection were worse than those of patients without bacterial co-infection.Conclusions: Secondary bacterial pneumonia during virus infection is a major risk factor for high mortality resulting from severe pneumonia caused by COVID-19.