Microbial Co-infections in Covid Patients: A Mini Review

In this review, we highlight the complications of COVID-19 affected patients due to microbial infections, which increase the severity of the disease. Nearly 50% of COVID-19 affected patients among non-survivors were either co-infected with bacterial, fungal, or viral pathogens. During ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it has been a challenge for developing and under developing countries to identify co-infections in patients due to limited healthcare facilities and high cost for the diagnostic tests. Since several microbial co-infections are associated with COVID-19, there is need to diagnose such co-infections in early stage so that required control measures would be taken to avoid the further health risks. People with severe COVID-19, COVID-19 patients in intensive care units (ICU), are susceptible to bacterial and fungal infections. Bacterial pathogens, representing less than 14% of patients with reported infections include Mycoplasma pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa while fungal sps include Aspergillus, Candida auris, black fungus etc that invade the brain or cause patients to lose vision. The unregulated and inappropriate use of antibiotics, antimicrobial drugs and alcohol based hand sanitizers may enhance the evolution of AMR phenotypes among infectious pathogens.