IV Iron Does Not Worsen Infections in a Real-World Study
A Retrospective, Real-World Study of IV Iron Use to Treat Iron-Deficiency Anemia During Acute Infection
Iron is an essential element for all living organisms, including microbes that cause human infection. Because of concerns that in patients with active infections iron administration may stimulate microbial growth, the treatment of iron deficiency with intravenous iron (IV iron) during infections has been controversial. A new retrospective study, published in the hematology journal Blood on Jan. 26, 2026 (10.1182/blood.2025031965), indicates that IV iron does not worsen infection outcomes in patients on antibiotics, and may even improve them. As this was a retrospective study, and the selection of patients for iron treatment could not be examined in detail, there could have been an inadvertent selection bias that allowed a greater proportion of patients with good prognosis to receive IV iron. Nevertheless, this ground-breaking study lays the ground for a prospective clinical trial that would examine this issue in a more definitive manner.