Detection of causative agents of bacterial pneumonia in hospitalized hajj and umrah cases by multiplex real-time polymerase chain reaction

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is commonly detected in pneumonia patients who travel from the Middle East regions. Besides MERS-CoV, many other pathogenic agents cause pneumonia. Detection of such organisms must be done swiftly, especially in case of the negative MERS-CoV samples. The aim of this study was to identify the pathogenic agents that might account for bacterial pneumonia, from Hajj and Umrah pneumonia cases. We conducted a cross-sectional study, 38 pneumonia clinical samples from suffering of Hajj and Umrah in 2017 with negative MERS-CoV were selected. The laboratory testing was done at National Reference Laboratory in Jakarta and performed by multiplex real-time PCR using a FTD respiratory pathogens. (26.4%) was the most frequent bacteria detected. Other causative agents of bacterial pneumonia identified were (20.8%), (13.2%), (9.4%), and (5.7%). From 38 samples showed that 25 (65.79%) samples were positive with bacteria, including five samples with coinfection. The coinfection were combinations among and (1/20), and (1/20), and (2/20), and (2/20), and (5/20), and and (5/20). is the most recurrent bacteria to be identified in samples of pneumonia of hajj and umrah cases.