Objectives of the study

Research Questions

Our research questions are:

1. What is the incidence of secondary bacterial infections such as pneumonia and bloodstream infections among hospitalized in-patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection?
2. How frequent are secondary bacterial infections caused by antibiotic resistant pathogens (including MDR/XDR/PDR pathogens) in the patients with positive secondary bacterial culture tests and, where confirmed pathogens distribution, susceptibilities, and antimicrobial resistance patterns in patients with SARS-CoV-2 with secondary bacterial infections?
3. What proportion of patients with secondary bacterial pneumonia and BSIs received appropriate empiric antimicrobial therapy including proportion of patients with de-escalated antimicrobial therapy?

Objectives of the study

Primary Objectives

In these forthcoming studies our specific primary objectives are, within samples of different national populations of hospitalized COVID-19 inpatients, to:

1. Estimate the incidence of secondary bacterial infections such as pneumonia (HAP, ventilated HAP, VAP and community acquired pneumonia, other lower respiratory tract infections) and bloodstream infections among patients admitted for SARS-CoV-2 infection, in a representative sample of countries and hospitals.
2. Describe different pneumoniae types, (e.g. CAP, HAP, ventilated HAP, VAP, other LRTIs) and the proportion of infections due to antibiotic / multidrug resistant pathogens, and the isolated pathogens in terms of species and resistance patterns including those for lower respiratory tract infections and blood stream infections.
3. Evaluate proportion of patients with secondary bacterial pneumonia and BSIs who received appropriate empiric antimicrobial therapy and proportion of patients with antimicrobial treatment de-escalation.

Secondary Objectives

Our secondary objectives are:

1. Assess the association of mortality and a number of factors in particular: infection non-susceptible to prescribed antibiotic, adjusting for age, comorbidities and other relevant country/hospital/patient characteristics.
2. Estimate the incidence of viral, fungal or protozoan pathogens infections among hospitalized SARS-CoV-2 inpatients at presentation or during hospital stay.
3. Describe any antimicrobial drug administered (antibiotics, antivirals etc.) to these patients, and the indication for treatment (prophylaxis, empiric or targeted therapy).