Could antibiotics help fight COVID-19? Study sheds light

The bacteriophage behaviour of SARS-CoV-2 during the acute and post-COVID-19 phases appeared to be an important factor in the development of the disease. The early use of antibiotics seemed to be crucial to inhibit disease progression—to prevent viral replication in the gut microbiome, and control toxicological production from the human microbiome.

To study the impact of specific antibiotics on recovery from COVID-19 and long COVID (LC) taking into account: vaccination status and time of initiation of antibiotic therapy, researchers recruited a total of 211 COVID-19 patients in the study: of which 59 were vaccinated with mRNA vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 while 152 were unvaccinated. Patients were enrolled in three waves: from September 2020 to October 2022, corresponding to the emergence of the pre-Delta, Delta, and Omicron variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

In the analysis, both vaccinated and unvaccinated groups had a median illness duration of 7 days, the median illness duration for the pre-Delta and Delta waves was 8 days, while it was shorter, 6.5 days, for Omicron.

The results showed that patients with comorbidities had a significantly longer disease duration: median 8 days compared to 7 days for those without comorbidities. Early initiation of antibiotic therapy resulted in a significantly shorter recovery time. Concomitant use of antibiotics did not reduce disease duration and in multivariate analysis prolonged the disease. A subgroup of 42 patients receiving corticosteroids for a median of 3 days had a longer recovery time compared to others.

The findings revealed a statistically significant reduction in recovery time among patients who received early antibiotic treatment. Early initiation of antibiotics played a crucial role in maintaining higher levels of blood oxygen saturation. In addition, it is worth noting that a significant number of patients who received antibiotics in the first 3 days and for a duration of 7 days, during the acute phase did not develop Long Covid.