Superinfection
Severinov spoke about the nature of superinfection, which causes deadly pneumonia in a pandemic
Konstantin Severinov, a molecular biologist, head of the laboratory of the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, spoke on the air of the Echo of Moscow radio station about the nature of drug-resistant superinfection, which causes people to fall ill with deadly pneumonia.
According to him, in hospitals where they are treated for coronavirus, a special microflora of bacteria resistant to drugs, in particular to antibiotics, has formed, which is why people get sick with deadly pneumonia.
"The covid itself has nothing to do with superinfection. There is such a concept of hospital infections, those bacterial infections that people get sick with while, for example, in hospitals. And the widespread use of antibiotics led to the fact that a number of hospitals had their own resident microflora removed," K. Severinov said.
The nature of this superinfection is not viral, the professor noted, but bacterial. It's just about bacterial infections that occur in people who have been on a ventilator for a long time.
"They are caused either by the bacterium Klebsiella pneumoniae, or Acinetobacter baumannii, less often by the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is called Pseudomonas aeruginosa. All three are known as a frequent source of hospital infections," the microbiologist explained.
Therefore, in some cases, the expert said, there are simply no antibiotics in the arsenal of doctors, with the help of which it would be possible to cope with the infection caused by these hospital strains. In this connection, many patients admitted to hospitals with coronavirus die from a superinfection received in the hospital.
"Unfortunately, the treatment of covid in severe cases is accompanied by the transfer of patients to a ventilator, on which they are for a long time. And during artificial ventilation, bacteria inevitably enter the lungs, those that are present in hospitals. This leads to the fact that people catch pneumonia of non–viral origin due to prolonged stay on a ventilator, which in some cases is just impossible to cure," he explained.
K. Severinov added that the administration of antibiotics to all patients with coronavirus leads to the fact that the frequency of resistant bacteria increases.
"Bacterial pneumonia can be fatal if there is no way to cure it, and if bacteria are resistant to antibiotics, then there is no way. Or the patient's immune state cannot be corrected with it. Yes, this is an essential part of pneumonia can lead to death if they cannot be cured," K. Severinov concluded.
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