Superinfections — a common complication in which a secondary bacterial infection occurs on top of the primary viral infection — are also to blame.
Early evidence (Trusted Source) suggests that about 50 percent of people who’ve died from COVID-19 also had a secondary bacterial or fungal infection, some of which were resistant to antibiotics.
First is a condition called ventilator-associated pneumonia (Trusted Source), a lung infection that develops when harmful germs get into a person’s lungs via the part of the ventilator that goes through the throat.
Nearly half of patients who’ve died from COVID-19 had a secondary bacterial infection. Sometimes, these secondary infections are resistant to antibiotics and antifungals, making them difficult and potentially impossible to treat.
Patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19 are susceptible to superinfections that occasionally are resistant to the antimicrobial available. Superinfections aren’t just a problem with COVID-19, and the novel coronavirus has shed light on a bigger issue we’re facing with drug-resistant bacteria.
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