# Study: Bloodstream Infections Are Contributing to COVID Deaths > ## Excerpt > Study: Bloodstream Infections Are Contributing to COVID Deaths --- A just-released study shows that bloodstream infections are causing “significant” numbers of severe illness and death in COVID-19 patients. Study authors took a retrospective look at a tertiary care hospital’s electronic records to determine a pattern for all patients with bloodstream infections (BSIs) and found that of 750 COVID patients in the ICU, 8.5% developed BSIs. All patients with severe COVID who had BSIs died. Comorbidities and leukocyte counts also contributed, including hypertension, diabetes, ischemic heart disease and end-stage renal disease. They also noted that 68.1% of the patients with BSIs were on ventilators, compared to just 13.6% not on ventilators. SOURCE: [BMC Infectious Diseases September 2021](https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12879-021-06647-x)