Superinfections in Covid-19 patients in the ICU - before and after dexamethasone
At the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, no other treatment than supportive care was available. Since then, it has become clear that dexamethasone improves both morbidity and survival in Covid-19 patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). In patients with viral infection and ARDS in need of mechanical ventilation, we often see other infections – super-infections - that complicate the clinical picture. However, during the first months of Covid-19, very few cases of superinfections were observed. Later, during the second wave of Covid-19 in the autumn of 2020, we observed several unusual bacterial and fungal superinfections. The purpose of this study is to see if there was an actual difference in superinfections in Covid-19 patients before and after the introduction of dexamethasone as standard of care.
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