Low rates of antibiotic use among ambulatory patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Alison G C Smith; Eli Wilber; Paulina A Rebolledo; Joseph Sharp; Sheetal Kandiah; Daniel S Graciaa; Russell R Kempker

doi:10.1017/ash.2022.17

Low rates of antibiotic use among ambulatory patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

Antimicrob Steward Healthc Epidemiol. 2022;2(1):e62. doi: 10.1017/ash.2022.17. Epub 2022 Apr 11.

Authors

Alison G C Smith¹, Eli Wilber², Paulina A Rebolledo^{2

3}, Joseph Sharp⁴, Sheetal Kandiah², Daniel S Graciaa², Russell R Kempker²

Affiliations

¹ Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia.
² Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia.
³ Hubert Department of Global Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia.
⁴ Division of General Medicine and Geriatrics, Department of Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia.

Abstract

We assessed the prevalence of antibiotic prescriptions among ambulatory patients tested for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in a large public US healthcare system and found a low overall rate of antibiotic prescriptions (6.7%). Only 3.8% of positive severe acute respiratory coronavirus virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) tests were associated with an antibiotic prescription within 7 days.

Abstract

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