Infection rates from drug-resistant “nightmare bacteria” rose by 70% in the US, according to a new report.
The increase is driven by a difficult-to-treat gene called NDM, say researchers from the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Only two antibiotics work to treat it – and the drugs are expensive and have to be administered intraveneously.
Bacteria with the gene were once considered exotic, linked to a small number of patients who received medical care overseas, and though the numbers are still small, the rate of US cases jumped more than fivefold in recent years, the researchers reported.
“The rise of NDMs in the US is a grave danger and very worrisome,” said David Weiss, an infectious diseases researcher at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.
The report took data from 29 states. It counted 4,341 cases of carbapenem-resistant bacterial infections from those states in 2023, with 1,831 of them the NDM variety.
The rate of carbapenem-resistant infections rose from just under 2 per 100,000 people in 2019 to more than 3 per 100,000 in 2023 – an increase of 69%. But the rate of NDM cases rose from around 0.25 to about 1.35 – an increase of 460%, the authors said.
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In recent years, the CDC has drawn attention to “nightmare bacteria” resistant to a wide range of antibiotics.
Carbapenems are a class of antibiotics considered a last resort for treatment of serious infections.
The researchers did not say how many of the infected people died.
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It’s likely many people are unrecognised carriers of the drug-resistant bacteria, which could lead to community spread, the CDC scientists warned.
It is feared that infections long considered routine and easy to combat – like urinary tract infections – could become harder to treat, said Dr Maroya Walters, one of the report’s authors.
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Antimicrobial resistance occurs when germs such as bacteria and fungi gain the power to fight off the drugs designed to kill them.
The misuse of antibiotics was a big reason for the rise – unfinished or unnecessary prescriptions that didn’t kill the germs made them stronger.
‘Huge surge’
A researcher not involved in the study said the increase is probably related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We know that there was a huge surge in antibiotic use during the pandemic, so this likely is reflected in increasing drug resistance,” said Dr Jason Burnham, of Washington University.
The CDC’s count is also only a partial picture. Many states are not fully testing and reporting cases. Even in states that do, cases tend to only be among hospital patients sick enough to warrant special testing.
The CDC researchers did not have data from some of the most populous states, including California, Florida, New York and Texas, which means the absolute number of US infections “is definitely underestimated,” Dr Burnham said.
