Scandinavian journal of infectious diseases
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Scand. J. Infect. Dis. · Aug 2011
Clinical impact of combined viral and bacterial infection in patients with community-acquired pneumonia.
New methods for identifying respiratory pathogens have led to several reports of a high yield of mixed infections in patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). The clinical impact of these findings has, however, not been fully evaluated. We aimed to compare patients with a pure bacterial etiology with those with findings of both bacteria and virus regarding severity of illness and length of hospital stay. ⋯ Patients infected with a virus and a bacterial pathogen more often develop severe CAP and have a longer hospitalization than those with a bacterial etiology alone.