Iron is needed by bacteria
Higher iron associated with higher mortality in ICU patients – https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-29353-2
Animal sepsis models – giving iron in septic animals leads to increased mortality – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15190970/
Giving IV iron to stable outpatients doesn’t necessarily increase infections – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31485910/
But wouldn’t give it to septic patients (though note the data for this are sparse – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3226152/)
In fact, check out Cefiderocol – trojan horse antibiotic – two cephalosporins (ceftaz, cefepime) and catechol-type siderophore ~iron – gets taken up by bacteria but then attacked by antimicrobial! – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7054475/ – just recently approved
