COVID-19 Treatment: Many Patients Received 'Useless' Antibiotics, New Study Says

In the early days of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., many people with the infection received unnecessary antibiotics in hospitals, says a new study.

The study, titled "Bacterial and Fungal Co-Infections in COVID-19 Patients Hospitalized During the New York City Pandemic Surge,” looked at the COVID-19 response of the Montefiore Medical Center in New York City.

The medical facility is located in the Bronx, one of the boroughs that saw a high rate of coronavirus hospitalizations and fatalities in the spring. A team led by Dr. Priya Nori, an infectious disease specialist at Montefiore, found that of all coronavirus patients hospitalized between March and May, more than 70% received antibiotics.

This is despite the fact that the infection is viral and only a couple of the patients suffer from co-existing bacterial infection. Antibiotics eliminate bacteria but are not effective when it comes to viral infections like the flu, common cold and COVID-19.

"Early on, we didn't have a great handle on the disease yet," Dr. Nori said, adding that it was not even clear at the time whether COVID-19, on its own, is enough to cause severe symptoms or whether the patients have co-existing bacterial infections. For emergency physicians, administering antibiotics to very sick patients may seem like a right call, she explained.

At Montefiore, the researchers found that of over 5,800 COVID-19 patients admitted between March and May, 71% received at least one dose of antibiotics. Yet, a follow-up analysis of patients hospitalized through April 18 shows that less than 4% actually suffer from bacterial or fungal "co-infection."

The findings were recently published in the medical journal Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology.

The Montefiore Medical Center is "not an outlier." Dr. Cornelius Clancy, Infectious Diseases Society of America spokesperson and infectious diseases chief at the VA Pittsburgh Health Care System, told US News & World Report magazine that some studies found a similar pattern in other hospitals also, with approximately 70% of coronavirus patients receiving antibiotics, despite the low rates of bacterial infections.

Dr. Clancy admitted that those numbers come from the earlier days of the pandemic and things could be different now. Dr. Nori agreed with Clancy's observation, adding that since their research period, antibiotic use at the hospital was at "more typical levels."

The doctor said one of the goals of the study was to document what occurred during the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak. "If it happens again, let's not be so ubiquitous with our antibiotic use," she added.