Researchers Develop DNA Test to Identify Pneumonia in Patients With Severe Covid-19
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Researchers have developed a DNA test to quickly identify secondary infections in Covid-19 patients, who have double the risk of developing pneumonia while on ventilation.
For patients with the most severe forms of Covid-19, mechanical ventilation is often the only way to keep them alive, as doctors use anti-inflammatory therapies to treat their inflamed lungs.
However, these patients are susceptible to further infections from bacteria and fungi that they may acquire while in the hospital -- so-called 'ventilator-associated pneumonia'.
"Early on in the pandemic, we noticed that Covid-19 patients appeared to be particularly at risk of developing secondary pneumonia, and started using a rapid diagnostic test that we had developed for just such a situation," said co-author Andrew Conway Morris from the University of Cambridge.