ArticleEuropean journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology2021
Rates of bacterial co-infections and antimicrobial use in COVID-19 patients: a retrospective cohort study in light of antibiotic stewardship.
Article in European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 80 papers, 10 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
80 citing papers in PubMed, 10 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 147 citations in OpenAlex.
- Resistance profile and influence factors of carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (CRKP) causing infections in China: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Annals of clinical microbiology and antimicrobials · 2025Pooled it
- Clinical and immunological comparison of COVID-19 disease between critical and non-critical courses: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Pooled it
- Predictive values of procalcitonin for coinfections in patients with COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Virology journal · 2023Pooled it
- Antimicrobial resistance in patients with COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis.The Lancet. Microbe · 2023Pooled it
- Bacterial co-infection and antibiotic stewardship in patients with COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC infectious diseases · 2023Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Worldwide prevalence of microbial agents' coinfection among COVID-19 patients: A comprehensive updated systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of clinical laboratory analysis · 2022Pooled it
- Antifungal therapy in the management of fungal secondary infections in COVID-19 patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2022Pooled it
- The Spectrum of Antibiotic Prescribing During COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Literature Review.Microbial drug resistance (Larchmont, N.Y.) · 2021Pooled it
- Prevalence and outcomes of co-infection and superinfection with SARS-CoV-2 and other pathogens: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2021Pooled it
- Postmortem analysis of secondary infections in a German cohort of patients following COVID-19 infection.Infection · 2026Article
- SARS-CoV-2 Infection disrupts lower respiratory tract microbiome function and interactions.BMC microbiology · 2026Article
- Early antibiotic review and AWaRe prescribing in respiratory infections before vs during COVID-19: a two-hospital retrospective cohort study.Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice · 2026Article
- High frequency of antibiotic administration for COVID-19 patients in Syria and its associations with mortality and complications.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Observational
- Risk and prognostic patterns of viral-associated invasive pulmonary aspergillosis: impact of corticosteroid and antibiotic exposure in non-neutropenic hosts.Journal of thoracic disease · 2025Article
- Prevalence of Viral and Bacterial Co-Infections in SARS-CoV-2-Positive Individuals in Cyprus 2020-2022.Biomedicines · 2025Article
- Antibiotic Use Among Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19 Infection (SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant) in Oman: A Single-center Retrospective Study.Oman medical journal · 2025Article
- Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on antimicrobial resistance of Proteus mirabilis in a Brazilian hospital.Brazilian journal of microbiology : [publication of the Brazilian Society for Microbiology] · 2025Article
- Assessment of antibiotic utilization patterns in an Indian Level-1 Trauma Center: a pilot study exploring days of antibiotic spectrum coverage and defined daily doses using WHO AWaRe classification trends.Frontiers in antibiotics · 2025Article
- Analysis of coinfections in patients with hematologic malignancies and COVID-19 by next-generation sequencing of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid.European journal of medical research · 2024Article
20 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
17 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has spread worldwide. Bacterial co-infections are associated with unfavourable outcomes in respiratory viral infections; however, microbiological and antibiotic data related to COVID-19 are sparse. Adequate use of antibiotics in line with antibiotic stewardship (ABS) principles is warranted during the pandemic. We performed a retrospective study of clinical and microbiological characteristics of 140 COVID-19 patients admitted between February and April 2020 to a German University hospital, with a focus on bacterial co-infections and antimicrobial therapy. The final date of follow-up was 6 May 2020. Clinical data of 140 COVID-19 patients were recorded: The median age was 63.5 (range 17-99) years; 64% were males. According to the implemented local ABS guidelines, the most commonly used antibiotic regimen was ampicillin/sulbactam (41.5%) with a median duration of 6 (range 1-13) days. Urinary antigen tests for Legionella pneumophila and Streptococcus peumoniae were negative in all cases. In critically ill patients admitted to intensive care units (n = 50), co-infections with Enterobacterales (34.0%) and Aspergillus fumigatus (18.0%) were detected. Blood cultures collected at admission showed a diagnostic yield of 4.2%. Bacterial and fungal co-infections are rare in COVID-19 patients and are mainly prevalent in critically ill patients. Further studies are needed to assess the impact of antimicrobial therapy on therapeutic outcome in COVID-19 patients to prevent antimicrobial overuse. ABS guidelines could help in optimising the management of COVID-19. Investigation of microbial patterns of infectious complications in critically ill COVID-19 patients is also required.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.