Assessment The Prevalence Of Secondary Bacterial Infection Isolated From Patients with Covid-19 Virus in Kirkuk City

Abstract

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the cause of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), was first reported in China in late 2019 from a zoonotic source. The great majority of Covid-19 cases are asymptomatic or cause only minor disease. However, a significant percentage of patients develop a respiratory illness that necessitates hospitalization, and such infections can progress to severe illness with hypoxemic respiratory failure necessitating prolonged ventilatory support.

Aim: the study aimed to assess the prevalence of bacterial co-infection in (50) COVID-19 diagnosed hospitalized patients, with an examination of demographic, laboratory, and clinical parameters.

Methods: Sputum were obtained from patients in Respiratory care unit (RCU) and care wards. The  isolated bacteria was diagnosis by Vitek 2 analyzer system in Hawler Private Hospital. In addition, the hematological and biochemical tests were performed for all the 50 patients at the Al-Shiffa-14 Hospital laboratory.

Result: older people and those with underlying medical problems like hypertension (48%), diabetes (20%), chronic disease (26%), and cancer (6%) are more likely to develop severe illnesses. Strong correlation of lymphopenia (72%), increased CRP (98%), D-Dimer (84%), ferritin (88%) level and poor clinical outcome with the severity of the disease. Bacterial co-infection was identified, the rate of bacterial co-infection registered in this study (50%) is matching with other studies investigated the bacterial co-infection in COVID-19 infected patients who admitted in hospital wards and RCU units with the recording of Klebsiella Pneumoniae (26%) as the most common bacteria isolated from the COVID-19 infected patients sputum samples.

Conclusion: secondary bacterial infection is common with COVID-19 patients and lead to significant morbidity and mortality