Study: Bloodstream Infections Are Contributing to COVID Deaths

A just-released study shows that bloodstream infections are causing “significant” numbers of severe illness and death in COVID-19 patients.

Study authors took a retrospective look at a tertiary care hospital’s electronic records to determine a pattern for all patients with bloodstream infections (BSIs) and found that of 750 COVID patients in the ICU, 8.5% developed BSIs. All patients with severe COVID who had BSIs died.

Comorbidities and leukocyte counts also contributed, including hypertension, diabetes, ischemic heart disease and end-stage renal disease. They also noted that 68.1% of the patients with BSIs were on ventilators, compared to just 13.6% not on ventilators.

SOURCE: BMC Infectious Diseases September 2021