A new study suggests that a high percentage of people who required help from a ventilator due to a COVID-19 infection also developed secondary bacterial pneumonia, which was responsible for a higher mortality rate than the COVID-19 infection.
COVID-19 is no longer classed as a global health emergency by the World Health Organization, but scientists are still working hard to understand more about the virus and its impact – including how the coronavirus affects the body and leads to death.
A new analysis suggests that a high percentage of people who required help from a ventilator due to a COVID-19 infection also developed secondary bacterial pneumonia. This pneumonia was responsible for a higher mortality rate than the COVID-19 infection.
So while COVID-19 may have put these patients in the hospital, it was actually an infection brought on by the use of a mechanical ventilator that was more likely to be the cause of death when this infection didn't respond to treatment.
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