ABSTRACT
The pandemic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has affected millions of people worldwide. To date, there are no proven effective therapies for this virus. Efforts made to develop antiviral strategies for the treatment of COVID-19 are underway. Respiratory viral infections, such as influenza, predispose patients to co-infections and these lead to increased disease severity and mortality. Numerous types of antibiotics such as azithromycin have been employed for the prevention and treatment of bacterial co-infection and secondary bacterial infections in patients with a viral respiratory infection (e.g., SARS-CoV-2). Although antibiotics do not directly affect SARS-CoV-2, viral respiratory infections often result in bacterial pneumonia. It is possible that some patients die from bacterial co-infection rather than virus itself. To date, a considerable number of bacterial strains have been resistant to various antibiotics such as azithromycin, and the overuse could render those or other antibiotics even less effective. Therefore, bacterial co-infection and secondary bacterial infection are considered critical risk factors for the severity and mortality rates of COVID-19. Also, the antibiotic-resistant as a result of overusing must be considered. In this review, we will summarize the bacterial co-infection and secondary bacterial infection in some featured respiratory viral infections, especially COVID-19.
Subject(s)
Anti-Bacterial Agents/therapeutic use , Antiviral Agents/therapeutic use , Bacterial Infections/epidemiology , COVID-19/epidemiology , Pandemics , Pneumonia, Bacterial/epidemiology , Acinetobacter baumannii/drug effects , Acinetobacter baumannii/pathogenicity , Bacterial Infections/drug therapy , Bacterial Infections/microbiology , Bacterial Infections/virology , COVID-19/microbiology , COVID-19/virology , Coinfection , Haemophilus influenzae/drug effects , Haemophilus influenzae/pathogenicity , Host-Pathogen Interactions/immunology , Humans , Immunity, Innate/drug effects , Klebsiella pneumoniae/drug effects , Klebsiella pneumoniae/pathogenicity , Legionella pneumophila/drug effects , Legionella pneumophila/pathogenicity , Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus/drug effects , Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus/pathogenicity , Pneumonia, Bacterial/drug therapy , Pneumonia, Bacterial/microbiology , Pneumonia, Bacterial/virology , Pseudomonas aeruginosa/drug effects , Pseudomonas aeruginosa/pathogenicity , Respiratory System/drug effects , Respiratory System/microbiology , Respiratory System/pathology , Respiratory System/virology , SARS-CoV-2/drug effects , SARS-CoV-2/pathogenicity , Streptococcus pneumoniae/drug effects , Streptococcus pneumoniae/pathogenicity , Streptococcus pyogenes/drug effects , Streptococcus pyogenes/pathogenicity , COVID-19 Drug TreatmentABSTRACT
The SARS-CoV-2 virus is an etiological agent of pandemic COVID-19, which spreads rapidly worldwide. No proven effective therapies currently exist for this virus, and efforts to develop antiviral strategies for the treatment of COVID-19 are underway. The rapidly increasing understanding of SARS-CoV-2 virology provides a notable number of possible immunological procedures and drug targets. However, gaps remain in our understanding of the pathogenesis of COVID-19. In this review, we describe the latest information in the context of immunological approaches and emerging current antiviral strategies for COVID-19 treatment.