The Prevalence of Bacterial and Fungal Coinfections among Critically Ill COVID-19 Patients in the ICU in Jordan.

Background: Secondary bacterial and fungal coinfections have been reported among critically ill coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) patients and are associated with increased disease severity and mortality incidence (MI) rates.
Aims: This study aimed to track bacterial and fungal coinfections among COVID-19 patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) and to assess the impact of these infections on disease prognosis and patient outcomes in Jordan.
Materials and Methods: This was a single-center study that enrolled 46 ICU patients diagnosed with COVID-19. Microbiological and antimicrobial susceptibility results and inflammatory biomarker data were retrospectively analyzed.
Results: The MI rate attributed to bacterial and fungal coinfections was 84.8%, and the highest rate was reported among patients older than 70 years (66.7%). The MI rate related to bacterial coinfections was 95.2%, whereas that of fungal coinfections was 4.8%. The most commonly isolated bacterium in the blood was a coagulase-negative staphylococcus (41%), followed by Klebsiella pneumoniae in nasopharyngeal swabs (34%) and Acinetobacter baumannii in sputum samples (31%). Candida species were the sole cause of fungal coinfections in the studied population. In particular, Candida albicans was isolated from 3% of patients with bacteremia, whereas Candida glabrata was isolated from 8% of nasopharyngeal swabs. Klebsiella pneumoniae was considered the major cause of upper respiratory tract infections (34%). Multifactorial infection was significantly associated with increased MI ( p value <0.001).
Conclusion: COVID-19 MI is associated with respiratory bacterial/fungal coinfections. The ability to predict bacterial and fungal coinfections in ICU patients may be crucial to their survival and prognosis.
Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
(Copyright © 2022 Ayman Daifallah Alsheikh et al.)