PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Alhoufie, Sari T.
AU  - Ibrahim, Nadir A.
AU  - Alsharif, Naif H.
AU  - Alfarouk, Khalid O.
AU  - Makhdoom, Hatim M.
AU  - Aljabri, Khaled R.
AU  - Saeed, Sayed H.
AU  - Khoumaeys, Adnan A.
AU  - Almutawif, Yahya A.
AU  - Najim, Mustafa A.
AU  - Ali, Hamza M.
AU  - Aljifri, Alanoud A.
AU  - Kheyami, Ali M.
AU  - Alhazmi, Areej A.
TI  - Seroprevalence of community-acquired atypical bacterial pneumonia among adult COVID-19 patients from a single center in Al Madinah Al Munawarah, Saudi Arabia
AID  - 10.15537/smj.2022.43.9.20220379
DP  - 2022 Sep 01
TA  - Saudi Medical Journal
PG  - 1000--1006
VI  - 43
IP  - 9
4099  - http://smj.org.sa/content/43/9/1000.short
4100  - http://smj.org.sa/content/43/9/1000.full
SO  - Saudi Med J2022 Sep 01; 43
AB  - Objectives: To investigate the seroprevalence of the community-acquired bacterial that causes atypical pneumonia among confirmed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2) patients.Methods: In this cohort study, we retrospectively investigated the seroprevalence of Chlamydia pneumoniae, Mycoplasma pneumoniae, and Legionella pneumophila among randomly selected 189 confirmed COVID-19 patients at their time of hospital presentation via commercial immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibodies against these bacteria. We also carried out quantitative measurements of procalcitonin in patients’ serum.Results: The seropositivity for L. pneumophila was 12.6%, with significant distribution among patientsolder than 50 years (χ2 test, p=0.009), while those of M. pneumoniae was 6.3% and C. pneumoniae was 2.1%, indicating an overall co-infection rate of 21% among COVID-19 patients. No significant difference (χ2 test, p=0.628) in the distribution of bacterial co-infections existed between male and female patients. Procalcitonin positivity was confirmed amongst 5% of co-infected patients.Conclusion: Our study documented the seroprevalence of community-acquired bacteria co-infection among COVID-19 patients. In this study, procalcitonin was an inconclusive biomarker for non-severe bacterial co-infections among COVID-19 patients. Consideration and proper detection of community-acquired bacterial co-infection may minimize misdiagnosis during the current pandemic and positively reflect disease management and prognosis.