Co-Infection in COVID-19 Pneumonia: Discussion Continues

Daria Strelkova; Svetlana Rachina; Alexey Klimenko; Svetlana Yatsyshina; Dmitry Cheboksarov; Tatiana Cherkasova; Natig Ramazanov; Nataliia Ananicheva

doi:10.3947/ic.2022.0110

Co-Infection in COVID-19 Pneumonia: Discussion Continues

Infect Chemother. 2022 Dec;54(4):792-796. doi: 10.3947/ic.2022.0110.

Authors

Daria Strelkova¹, Svetlana Rachina², Alexey Klimenko³, Svetlana Yatsyshina⁴, Dmitry Cheboksarov⁵, Tatiana Cherkasova⁶, Natig Ramazanov², Nataliia Ananicheva⁷

Affiliations

¹ I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow, Russian Federation. dashastrelkova@gmail.com.
² I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow, Russian Federation.
³ Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University, Moscow, Russian Federation.
⁴ Central Research Institute for Epidemiology of the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing (CRIE), Moscow, Russian Federation.
⁵ City Clinical Hospital Nº 13, Moscow, Russian Federation.
⁶ Hospital for war veterans Nº 3, Moscow, Russian Federation.
⁷ City Clinical Hospital named after S. S. Yudin, Moscow, Russian Federation.

Abstract

Sixty-six patients with laboratory-confirmed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and pneumonia on chest computer tomography were prospectively recruited. A combined respiratory swab for polymerase chain reaction (PCR), urine sample for pneumococcal and Legionella antigen, and sputum or endotracheal aspirate were collected. Urinary antigen and blood culture tests were negative in all cases as well as the PCR tests for other respiratory viruses and atypical bacterial pathogens. In total, 5 patients (7.5%) had co-infection. By PCR a high prevalence of colonization with bacterial pathogens was found. In conclusion, co-infection is rare in coronavirus disease 2019 patients, and additional examination to identify other pathogens should be performed only in selected cases.

Keywords: Antibiotics; COVID-19; Co-infection; Pneumonia; SARS-CoV-2.