What Really Killed Covid-19 Patients?

A new study conducted by Northwestern University has found evidence that the main driver in COVID-19 deaths is not cytokine storms, as previously thought. The team applied machine learning to the medical records of 585 patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) at Northwestern Memorial Hospital who had severe pneumonia, 190 of whom had COVID-19. The study found that nearly half of COVID-19 patients who required mechanical ventilation acquired ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). The study highlights the importance of preventing, looking for and aggressively treating secondary bacterial pneumonia in critically ill patients with severe pneumonia, including those with COVID-19.