NEW YORK (AP) – The number of drug-resistant “superbacterial” infections worsened during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. health officials said Tuesday.
NEW YORK (AP) – The number of drug-resistant “superbacterial” infections worsened during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. health officials said Tuesday.
After years of decline, 2020 saw a 15% increase in hospital-acquired infections and deaths caused by some of the most worrying bacterial infections, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr. Arjun Srinivasan, a CDC expert, described it as “an amazing investment” that he hopes would be a one-year mistake.
CDC officials believe several factors may have caused the increase, including how COVID-19 was treated when it first affected the United States in early 2020.
Antimicrobial resistance occurs when germs such as bacteria and fungi gain power to fight drugs designed to kill them. Misuse of antibiotics was an important reason: unfinished or unnecessary prescriptions that did not kill germs made them stronger.
Prior to the pandemic, health officials said it appeared that U.S. superbacterial infections were declining. Deaths fell 18% between 2012 and 2017, when some 36,000 Americans died from drug-resistant infections. The government accredited hospitals to use antibiotics more judiciously and to isolate patients who could spread the germs.
The CDC does not have 2020 data on all superbugs, in part because health officials had to focus on COVID-19. But it has data on seven types of bacterial and fungal infections that were detected in hospital patients, including MRSA and a bug called CRE known as “the nightmare bacterium.”
The CDC saw increases of 15% or more in infections and deaths from this group of germs.
One possible reason: From March to October 2020, nearly 80 percent of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 received an antibiotic, CDC officials said. The use of certain types of antibiotics increased as doctors aggressively used a variety of drugs to fight not only coronavirus, but also bacterial co-infections that could wipe out their weakened patients.
In 2021, global antibiotic use declined. And Srinivasan noted that the use of catheters, ventilators and other medical devices may also decrease. These devices, which are used in severely ill patients, can become incursions into patients ’bodies for drug-resistant germs.
However, any increase in hospitalizations for COVID-19, such as the one currently seen in the U.S., increases that risk, he said.
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The Associated Press Department of Health and Science is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Mike Stobbe, The Associated Press