ABSTRACT
The ability of influenza A virus to evolve, coupled with increasing antimicrobial resistance, could trigger an influenza pandemic with great morbidity and mortality. Much of the 1918 influenza pandemic mortality was likely due to bacterial coinfection, including Staphylococcus aureus pneumonia. S. aureus resists many antibiotics. The lack of new antibiotics suggests alternative antimicrobials, such as bacteriophages, are needed. Potential delivery routes for bacteriophage therapy (BT) include inhalation and intravenous injection. BT has recently been used successfully in compassionate access pulmonary infection cases. Phage lysins, enzymes that hydrolyze bacterial cell walls and which are bactericidal, are efficacious in animal pneumonia models. Clinical trials will be needed to determine whether BT can ameliorate disease in influenza and S. aureus coinfection.
Subject(s)
Bacteriophages/physiology , Coinfection/therapy , Influenza A virus/physiology , Influenza, Human/therapy , Phage Therapy , Pneumonia, Staphylococcal/therapy , Staphylococcus aureus/virology , Animals , Coinfection/microbiology , Coinfection/mortality , Coinfection/virology , Humans , Influenza A virus/genetics , Influenza, Human/mortality , Influenza, Human/virology , Pneumonia, Staphylococcal/microbiology , Pneumonia, Staphylococcal/mortality , Staphylococcus aureus/genetics , Staphylococcus aureus/physiologyABSTRACT
Necrotizing pneumonia induced by Panton-Valentine leukocidin-secreting Staphylococcus aureus is a rare but life-threatening infection that has been described in patients after they had influenza. We report a fatal case of this superinfection in a young adult who had coronavirus disease.