Bacterial coinfection and antibiotic resistance in hospitalized COVID-19 patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis

• Published in: PeerJ (San Francisco, CA) Vol. 11; p. e15265
• Main Authors: Che Yusof, Ruhana, Norhayati, Mohd Noor, Mohd Azman, Yacob
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States PeerJ. Ltd 26-04-2023; PeerJ Inc
• Subjects: Analysis; Antibiotic-resistant bacteria; Bacteria; Bacterial coinfection; Bacterial pneumonia; Carbapenems; Coinfection; Comorbidity; COVID-19; Drug resistance in microorganisms; Drug Resistance, Bacterial; Drugs and Devices; Escherichia coli; Health aspects; Hospital patients; Humans; Infectious Diseases; Medical research; Medicine, Experimental; Methicillin; Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus; Microbiology; Pneumonia; Prevalence; Respiratory Medicine; Systematic review; COVID-19; Bacterial coinfection; Systematic review; Prevalence; Antibiotic-resistant bacteria
• ISSN: 2167-8359; 2167-8359
• DOI: 10.7717/peerj.15265

There were a few studies on bacterial coinfection in hospitalized COVID-19 patients worldwide. This systematic review aimed to provide the pooled prevalence of bacterial coinfection from published studies from 2020 to 2022.
Three databases were used to search the studies, and 49 studies from 2,451 identified studies involving 212,605 COVID-19 patients were included in this review.
The random-effects inverse-variance model determined that the pooled prevalence of bacterial coinfection in hospitalized COVID-19 patients was 26.84% (95% CI [23.85-29.83]). The pooled prevalence of isolated bacteria for
was 23.25% (95% CI [19.27-27.24]),
was 10.51% (95% CI [8.90-12.12]),
was 15.24% (95% CI [7.84-22.64]),
was 11.09% (95% CI [8.92-13.27]) and
(11.59% (95% CI [9.71-13.46])). Meanwhile, the pooled prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria for extended-spectrum beta-lactamases producing Enterobacteriaceae was 15.24% (95% CI [7.84-22.64]) followed by carbapenem-resistant
(14.55% (95% CI [9.59-19.52%])), carbapenem-resistant
(6.95% (95% CI [2.61-11.29])), methicillin-resistant
(5.05% (95% CI [3.49-6.60])), carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (4.95% (95% CI [3.10-6.79])), and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (1.26% (95% CI [0.46-2.05])).
All the prevalences were considered as low. However, effective management and prevention of the infection should be considered since these coinfections have a bad impact on the morbidity and mortality of patients.