In a new study, researchers found more than half of patients hospitalized with suspected COVID-19 in Michigan during the state’s peak months received antibiotics soon after they arrive, just in case they had a bacterial infection in addition to the virus.
But testing soon showed that 96.5% of them only had the coronavirus, which antibiotics don’t affect.
The 3.5% of patients who arrived at the hospital with both kinds of infection were more likely to die.
But the study suggests that faster testing and understanding of infection risk factors could help hospital teams figure out who those patients are—and spare the rest of their COVID-19 patients the risks that come with overuse of antibiotics.
The research was conducted by a team at the University of Michigan and elsewhere.
The new study is based on data from more than 1,700 hospitalized patients.
In addition to the widespread overuse of antibiotics, the study shows that hospitals varied widely in their use of antibiotics among people newly hospitalized for suspected COVID-19.
In some, only a quarter of suspected COVID-19 patients received them within two days of being hospitalized, while in others, nearly all did.
The team also found older people, people who had come to the hospital from a nursing home, and people who were admitted straight to intensive care were more likely to turn out to have a bacterial infection in addition to coronavirus.
Half of these patients died, compared with 18% of those without bacterial infections.
Those who received antibiotics were more likely to be older, to have lower body mass index measurements, to have visible signs of infection on their chest X-ray, and to be in more critical condition when they arrive at the hospital.
The team says as time went on, and COVID-19 test turnaround time shortened, the use of antibiotics dropped—but was still too high.
In addition to putting patients at risk of opportunistic infections like Clostridium difficile that can worsen their odds of recovery, antibiotics also pose a broader risk of feeding the epidemic of drug-resistant bacteria that already plagues many hospitals and can put patients and staff at risk.
One author of the study is Valerie Vaughn, M.D., M.Sc.
The study is published in Clinical Infectious Diseases.
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