ReviewAntibiotics (Basel, Switzerland)2022
Increasing Consumption of Antibiotics during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Implications for Patient Health and Emerging Anti-Microbial Resistance.
Review in Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland), 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 65 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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
65 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 101 citations in OpenAlex.
- First regional consensus on the management ofWorld journal of gastroenterology · 2025Guideline
- Guts of healthy humans, livestock, and pets harbor critical-priority and high-risk Escherichia coli clones.Epidemiology and health · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Escalation of CTX-M-producing extensively drug-resistantMicrobiology spectrum · 2026Article
- Landscape Analysis of Existing Policies, Laws and Regulations on Antimicrobial Stewardship in 10 Low- and Middle-Income Countries.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- A Korean native halophyte extract attenuates the virulence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus by inhibiting biofilm formation.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Pathogen occurrence and antimicrobial resistance in long-term care units before and after the COVID-19 pandemic: an analysis from a Polish district hospital (2017-2023).Central European journal of public health · 2026Observational
- Susceptibility Trends of Enterobacterales Isolated from Blood Culture Samples: A Four-Year Analysis with the Rise of Carbapenem Resistance.Infectious diseases & clinical microbiology · 2026Article
- Research Landscape and Emerging Trends in Herbal Medicine for Pediatric Respiratory Tract Infections: A CiteSpace-Based Bibliometric Analysis.Health science reports · 2026Article
- Can a host-response bacterial-viral classifier safely guide antibiotic avoidance in COVID-19? A diagnostic accuracy study in hospitalized adults.JAC-antimicrobial resistance · 2026Article
- Systematic review on genomic insights into antimicrobial resistance in ESKAPE pathogens.African journal of laboratory medicine · 2026Review
- Occurrence of antibacterials, antivirals, and anti-inflammatory pharmaceuticals for COVID-19 treatment as emerging contaminants in the Chinese freshwater environment before, during and after the pandemic: the need for dynamic eco-pharmacovigilance.Environmental health and preventive medicine · 2026Review
- Antimicrobial susceptibility patterns in Jalisco, Mexico: a snapshot of regional resistance (2021-2023).Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Article
- Navigating Antimicrobial Resistance Insights: An In-Depth Analysis of Healthcare Providers' Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices, with an Emphasis on Precision Medicine in Pakistan.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Article
- Antibiotic overuse in a contemporary cohort of children hospitalized with influenza, RSV, or SARS-CoV-2: a retrospective cohort study.BMC pediatrics · 2025Article
- Increased Antimicrobial Consumption, Isolation Rate, and Resistance Profiles of Multi-Drug ResistantAntibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Human Antimicrobial Use in Bangladesh: Five-Year Trend Analysis Including COVID-19 Pandemic Era.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Prevalence and Factors Associated with Infections After Acute Ischemic Stroke: A Single-Center Retrospective Study over Five Years.Epidemiologia (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Characterization of Natural Products as Inhibitors of Shikimate Dehydrogenase from Methicillin-ResistantBiomolecules · 2025Article
5 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
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The emergence of COVID-19 infection led to the indiscriminate use of antimicrobials without knowing their efficacy in treating the disease. The gratuitous use of antibiotics for COVID-19 treatment raises concerns about the emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). In this systematic review, we performed a thorough systematic search using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines of scientific databases (Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed) to identify studies where antibiotics were prescribed to treat COVID-19 (December 2019 to December 2021). Of 970 identified studies, 130 were included in our analyses. Almost 78% of COVID-19 patients have been prescribed an antibiotic. Cephalosporins were the most prescribed (30.1% of patients) antibiotics, followed by azithromycin (26% of patients). Antibiotics were prescribed for COVID-19 patients regardless of reported severity; the overall rate of antibiotic use was similar when comparing patients with a severe or critical illness (77.4%) and patients with mild or moderate illness (76.8%). Secondary infections were mentioned in only 11 studies. We conclude that concerns related to COVID-19 and the lack of treatment strategy led to the overuse of antibiotics without proper clinical rationale. Based on our findings, we propose that antimicrobial stewardship should be retained as a priority while treating viral pandemics.
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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.