{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,25]],"date-time":"2025-12-25T01:25:50Z","timestamp":1766625950678,"version":"3.41.2"},"reference-count":48,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,11,1]],"date-time":"2023-11-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1698796800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Epidemiol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title><jats:p>COVID-19 has emerged as a highly contagious and debilitating disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus and has claimed the lives of over 7.7 million people worldwide. Bacterial co-infections are one of many co-morbidities that have been suggested to impact the outcome of COVID-19 in patients. The goals of this study are to elucidate the presence of bacteria in the nasopharynx of SARS-CoV-2 positive and negative patients and to describe demographic categories that may be associated with the detection of these organisms during one of the initial waves of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title><jats:p>To this end, we investigated SARS-CoV-2 and bacterial co-detection from outpatient RT-PCR testing in Texas.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>The results indicate that <jats:italic>Staphylococcus aureus<\/jats:italic>, <jats:italic>Streptococcus pneumoniae<\/jats:italic>, <jats:italic>Klebsiella pneumoniae<\/jats:italic>, <jats:italic>Moraxella catarrhalis<\/jats:italic>, and <jats:italic>Haemophilus influenzae<\/jats:italic> were the most frequently detected bacteria in both SARS-CoV-2 positive and SARS-CoV-2 negative patients and that these bacteria were present in these two patient populations at similar proportions. We also detected <jats:italic>Staphylococcus aureus<\/jats:italic> in a significantly larger proportion of males relative to females and people under 65 years of age relative to those 65 and over. Finally, we observed that SARS-CoV-2 was more commonly detected in Hispanics compared to non-Hispanics; however, low disclosure rates make volunteer bias a concern when interpreting the effects of demographic variables.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Discussion<\/jats:title><jats:p>This study describes the bacteria present in the nasopharynx of SARS-CoV-2 positive and negative patients, highlights associations between patient demographics and SARS-CoV-2 as well as bacterial co-detection. In addition, this study highlights RT-PCR based molecular testing as a tool to detect bacteria simultaneously when SARS-CoV-2 tests are performed.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fepid.2023.1274800","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,11,1]],"date-time":"2023-11-01T18:18:58Z","timestamp":1698862738000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Use of RT-PCR in conjunction with a respiratory pathogen assay to concurrently determine the prevalence of bacteria and SARS-CoV-2 from the nasopharynx of outpatients"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"3","author":[{"given":"James F.","family":"Shurko","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Robert B.","family":"Page","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Chris 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