The Role of Procalcitonine in the Investigation of Secondary Bacterial Infections Associated with Sars-Cov and Determined Its Resistance to Antibiotics

Abstract

110 samples (Blood, swab and sputum) were collected from the same persons from patients confirmed to infected with the emerging SARS-COV-2, for the period from November 2021 until March 2022. The age groups ranged 18-90 years old from both gender. The sputum and swab were cultivated on selective and differential media in the laboratory and stained by Gram stain. Some biochemical tests were done as confirmation diagnostic tests. There were 105(95.5%) samples yielded positive growth that includes 27 isolates (25.7%) are Staphylococcus aureus, 21 isolates (19.2%) are Klebsiella pneumoniae, two isolates (1.9%) are Klebsiella oxytoca, 16 isolates (15.2%) are pseudomonas aeruginosa, 9 isolates (8.5%) are Haemophilus influenza, and 8 isolates are (7.3%) of Enterococcus feacilus and 13 isolates of the genus Streptococcus 9 (8.2%) of which are Streptococcus pneumoniae, 4 isolates of (3.6%) of Streptococcus pyogenes, 5 isolates of (4.7%) of Escherichia coli, and 4 isolates of (3.8%) of Moraxiella catarrhalis. The sensitivity test of the isolated bacteria to 11 antibiotics were performed. The isolates varied for their response to the antibiotics used in the current study. And all isolates showed high resistance to some antibiotics, where all isolates showed 100% resistance towards Oxacillin. S. aureas was resistant to antibiotics Trimethoprin, Azethromycin, Oxacillin. S.pneumoniae was resistant to Tetracyclin, Oxacillin, Erythromycin, and S. pyogenes bacteria were resistant to Amoxicillin\Clavulanic acid, Tetracyclin, Oxacillin, Amikacin, Trimethoporacin, Eprothromycin, and E. faecalis was resistant to oxacillin. As for Gram-negative bacteria, the results showed that they were resistant to most antibiotics used in the current study. Procalcitonine test was used to detect and investigate secondary bacterial infections of SARS-CoV-2 patients in the serum of confirmed COVID-19 patients. The result showed procalcitonin was higher than the normal rate in the presence of bacteremia, which is an indication of the prognosis of a possible bacterial infection.