High antibiotic prescribing rates found in COVID-19 patientsA rapid review and meta-analysis of studies involving more than 35,000 COVID-19 patients has found that three-quarters received antibiotics even though fewer than 10% had a bacterial co-infection, Canadian researchers reported today in Clinical Microbiology and Infection.A total of 35,263 patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 were included across 154 studies published from Jan 1 through Jun 9, 2020.
Random effects meta-analysis of all combined studies estimated an antibiotic prescribing prevalence of 74.6% (95% confidence interval [CI], 68.3% to 80.0%).