Post covid infections –A threat to healthcare institutions

Background: COVID19 disease caused by SARSCoV2 virus is an acute respiratory tract illness associated with multiorgan involvement in many cases. This corona virus has caused pandemic all over the world. Aim and objectives: This study was undertaken to determine different post COVID infections, risk factors associated and clinical outcome of patients. Material and methods: Clinical samples from 42 post COVID patients were collected during our study period of 6 months who showed sudden deterioration in recovery period from COVID and the samples were processed in our laboratory using conventional and automated techniques. Different risk factors associated and laboratory parameters were studied. Results: Male patients were more common to develop post COVID infections than females. Maximum numbers of patients were of 41-60 years age range. Fungal infections including mucormycosis(11), candidiasis(8), aspergillosis(1); bacterial infections including Acinetobacter species(3), Klebsiella pneumoniae(8), Escherichia coli(2), Burkholderia cepacia(1), Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus(3), Enterococcus species(1), Pseudomonas aeruginosa(1), Tuberculosis(1) ,viral infection including 2 influenza virus infected cases. 6 patients died and rest recovered with appropriate treatment. Most common risk factor was use of immunosuppressive drug especially Corticosteroids (72%). C-reactive protein, ferritin, total leukocyte count, creatinine and D-dimer showed a rising trend during development of post-COVID infections as compared to values at admission. Diabetes mellitus (15%) was the most common post-COVID non-infectious complication, followed by hypertention, myocardial infarction and cerebrovascular accident. Conclusion: COVID19 is altering the landscape of hospital acquired infections and several opportunistic infections. Clinicians must be vigilant whenever a recovering COVID patient suddenly deteriorate or turns symptomatic, as often the post-COVID infections increase the mortality manifold.