Covid-19 patients at risk of developing fatal bacterial infection: Study (Representative image)
Coronavirus pandemic has shaken global health system as it is. Many countries, including India, are battling to bring the outbreak under control. A new observation is likely to send shivers across the world. A study by Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland has revealed that Covid-19 infection makes a patient susceptible to developing bacterial infections. This, in turn, may increase the risk of death in a patient.
What's more, researchers at Queens University suggest that the treatment offered to Covid-19 patients itself may make the patient susceptible to bacterial infection.
"...In their paper, the researchers discuss how COVID-19 patients are at risk of developing severe bacterial infections. The researchers suggest potentially fatal bacterial respiratory infections may arise subsequently or co-incidentally from hospital stays and therapies given to treat patients with COVID-19. Co-existing bacterial infection alongside the virus may worsen the clinical outcome and the severity of COVID-19 in a patient, increasing the risk of death..." says a release from Queen's University.
The finding was published by researchers, Professor José Bengoechea and Dr Connor Bamford, in a journal EMBO Molecular Medicine.
"...The paper highlights how SARS-CoV-2 and bacteria in the lungs may affect each other’s ability to cause damage, and with the immune response to the virus being different when bacteria are present, the clinical outcome and the severity of COVID-19 in a patient could worsen. The paper also suggests the likeliness of the gut microbiota being disrupted in severe COVID-19 patients, which may affect disease outcomes..." says the release from Queen's University.
Professor José Bengoechea, one of the researchers, described the secondary bacterial infection "potentially fatal". He says new treatments should be designed to tackle the scenario of dual infection in a patient.
