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Bacteremia during COVID-19 pandemic in a tertiary hospital in Spain
Saray Mormeneo Bayo1, María Pilar Palacián Ruíz1, Miguel Moreno Hijazo1
1Servicio de Microbiología, Hospital Universitario Miguel Servet Zaragoza, Spain.
Introduction:
The reasons for the decrease in blood cultures were investigated and the rate and aetiology of bacteremia and contaminated blood cultures collected from COVID and non-COVID patients were assessed.
Methods:
We performed a retrospective analysis in a tertiary hospital in Spain during the COVID period from 4th March 2020 to 21st June 2020.
Results:
The number of blood cultures processed was 5313, representing 22.7% and 18.8% of decrease compared to the same months of 2019 and 2018, respectively (p=0.173). The rate of bacteremia was 1.2% higher among COVID-patients than among non-COVID patients (p<0.001). COVID patients had a higher proportion of nosocomial bacteremia (95.5%) than non-COVID patients (30.5%) (p<0.001). In COVID-positive patients, the contamination rate was 12.3% vs 5.7% in non-COVID patients (p<0.001).
Conclusion:
There was a decrease in the number of blood cultures collected during the COVID period compared to previous years. Bacteremia in COVID patients was mainly nosocomial and catheter-related.
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