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Coinfections and antimicrobial use in patients hospitalized with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) across a single healthcare system in New York City: A retrospective cohort study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2022

Prithiv J. Prasad
Affiliation:
NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York City, New York
Jordan Poles
Affiliation:
NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York City, New York
Ioannis M. Zacharioudakis
Affiliation:
NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York City, New York
Yanina Dubrovskaya
Affiliation:
NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York City, New York
Dinuli Delpachitra
Affiliation:
NYU Long Island School of Medicine, Mineola, New York
Eduardo Iturrate
Affiliation:
NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York City, New York
Sigridh Muñoz-Gómez*
Affiliation:
NYU Long Island School of Medicine, Mineola, New York
*
Author for correspondence: Sigridh Muñoz-Gómez, MD, Division of Infectious Diseases, NYU Long Island School of Medicine, 222 Station Plaza North, Suite 432, Mineola, NY 11501. E-mail: sigridh.munoz-gomez@nyulangone.org

Abstract

Background and objective:

With the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, rates of in-hospital antimicrobial use increased due to perceived bacterial and fungal coinfections along with COVID-19. We describe the incidence of these coinfections and antimicrobial use in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 to help guide effective antimicrobial use in this population.

Setting:

This study was conducted in 3 tertiary-care referral university teaching hospitals in New York City.

Methods:

This multicenter retrospective observational cohort study involved all patients admitted with COVID-19 from January 1, 2020, to February 1, 2021. Variables of interest were extracted from a de-identified data set of all COVID-19 infections across the health system. Population statistics are presented as median with interquartile range (IQR) or proportions with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) as indicated.

Results:

Among 7,209 of patients admitted with COVID-19, 663 (9.2%) had a positive culture from the respiratory tract or blood sometime during their initial hospital admission. Positive respiratory cultures occurred found in 449 (6.2%) patients, and 20% were collected within 48 hours of admission. Blood culture positivity occurred in 334 patients (4.6%), with 33.5% identified within 48 hours of admission. A higher proportion of patients received antimicrobials in the first wave than in the later pandemic period (82.4% vs 52.0%). Antimicrobials were prescribed to 70.1% of inpatients, with a median of 6 antimicrobial days per patient. Infection-free survival decreased over the course of hospitalization.

Conclusions:

We detected a very low incidence of coinfection with COVID-19 at admission. A longer duration of hospitalization was associated with an increased risk of coinfection. Antimicrobial use far exceeded the true incidence and detection of coinfections in these patients.

Information

Type
Original Article
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America
Figure 0

Table 1.Demographics of COVID-19 Inpatients at NYU Langone Hospitals

Figure 1

Table 2.Most Frequent Organisms Isolated in Association With COVID-19 Coinfections and Secondary Infections

Figure 2

Figure 1.Survival Curve Of Remaining Infection-Free In Relation To The Duration Of Hospital Stay. The probability of remaining free of respiratory or bloodstream infections remains high on initial admission and decreases steadily after 10 days of hospitalization for COVID-19.

Figure 3

Figure 2.Proportion Of Organisms Isolated At Admission In Patients Admitted With COVID-19.

Figure 4

Figure 3.Proportion Of Organisms Isolated After 48 Hours In Patients Admitted With COVID-19.

Figure 5

Figure 4.Antimicrobial Use Among Patients Admitted With COVID-19 By Pharmacologic Class. Depicted is the antibiotic use in patients admitted with COVID-19 by pharmacologic class, represented by the percentage of all COVID-19 patients who received each antimicrobial class at least once.

Figure 6

Table 3a.Rate of Coinfections and Antimicrobial Use in COVID-19–Positive Subpopulations

Figure 7

Table 3b.Overall Antimicrobial Use in COVID-19–Positive Patients Among Those With and Without Identified Coinfections

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