Is COVID-19 Opening the Door to Increased Antibiotic Resistance?

Even though COVID-19 is a viral illness, some infectious disease experts are concerned about its possible effects on antibiotic resistance. It’s not that clinicians are inappropriately prescribing antibiotics for coronavirus-infected patients, but the fact that so many patients wind up with bacterial infections as a result—including those that become infected in the hospital. The Partnership to Fight Infectious Disease notes that the pandemic “has reinforced the critical importance of treatments for infectious disease, as many deaths and severe cases involve not only the virus but also superimposed bacterial infections…that then ultimately can, and often do, lead to death.” Patients who wind up with a resistant infection in conjunction with COVID-19 are in for a rough road. At this time it’s more important than ever to help patients avoid hospitalization, but also to ensure that you continue to practice good antibiotic stewardship. JUCM published an article on doing just that from an urgent care perspective. You can read Improving Appropriate Antibiotic Use for Common Clinical Conditions in Urgent Care in our archive.