Beyond the Virus: The Collateral Impact of COVID-19 on Antimicrobial Consumption, Microbial Resistance, and Pharmacoeconomics.

BACKGROUND

The COVID-19 pandemic had major global repercussions for hospitalized patients, affecting multiple aspects of hospital care. Understanding these effects is important for improving healthcare management and infection control practices. This study aimed to analyze and compare the pandemic's impact on antimicrobial use in hospitalized patients, with emphasis on therapeutic, microbiological, and pharmacoeconomic aspects.

METHODS

A retrospective observational study was conducted at a Brazilian tertiary hospital (2018-2022). Adult patients receiving antimicrobials were included. Variables analyzed were antimicrobial consumption, incidence of healthcare-associated infections, resistance profiles, hospital costs, adverse drug reactions, and pharmacy activities. Data were obtained from anonymized institutional records and analyzed using descriptive statistics, time series, and linear regression.

RESULTS

Analysis of 268,713 hospitalizations showed that the median monthly number of patients receiving antimicrobials did not increase significantly during the pandemic. Higher consumption of carbapenems, glycopeptides, polymyxins, and echinocandins was linked to more healthcare-associated infections by multidrug-resistant organisms. Clostridioides difficile infections declined. Mortality rose significantly, especially among COVID-19 patients. Costs increased by 39%, with antimicrobial-related expenses up 45.7%.

CONCLUSIONS

The pandemic intensified antimicrobial use, resistance, and costs. While limited by its single-center design and the use of all inpatients as the denominator, these findings highlight the important need for reinforced antimicrobial stewardship to build healthcare system resilience.