isolation of pseudomonas aeruginosa from persistent bacterial coinfection of a covid-19 patients with molecular detection of antibiotics resistance genes

Pseudomonas aeruginosa (p. aeruginosa) have a considerable risk to public health in the world, due to its high ability to develop resistance to different classes of antibiotics. it has been discovered as a prevalent coinfection pathogen that causes sickness exacerbation in covid-19 patients. this study aimed to determine the prevalence of p. aeruginosa from covid-19 patients in al diwaniyah province, iraq and to identify its genetic resistance pattern. 70 clinical samples were obtained from severe cases of patients (rt-pcr positive for sars-cov-2 on a nasopharyngeal swab) who attended al diwaniyah academic hospital. 50 p. aeruginosa bacterial isolates were detected via microscopic examination, routine cultured and biochemical testing, then validated by the vitek-2 compact system. vitek reported 30 positive results, which later confirmed through molecular detection using 16s rna specific for detection and a phylogenetic tree.20 isolates had positive pcr findings and 5 isolates submitted to genbank with accession numbers ol314557.1, ol314556.1, ol314555.1, ol314554.1, ol314553.1.for antibiotic resistance genes, the number of the isolates containing blaoxa-1 and blactx-m 18 (90 percent) and 16 (80 percent) respectively. to study its adaptation in a sars-cov-2 infected environment, genomic sequencing investigations were undertaken with phenotypic validation. in conclusion, we demonstrate that multidrug resistant p. aeruginosa play an important role in in vivo colonization in covid-19 patients and could be one of the causes of death of these patients which indicates the great challenge to clinicians in the facing of this serious disease.