Drug-resistant bugs cause more people to become sick and die than previously thought, according to the Washington Post.
A new report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that people in the US develop more than 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant infections each year and that these infections lead to more than 35,000 deaths. This, the Post notes, is higher than CDC's 2013 estimates of 2 million drug-resistant infections and 23,000 deaths per year. The new report relied on additional data from electronic health records from more than 700 acute care hospitals to bolster its estimates
The CDC report highlights five bugs as particularly worrisome, calling carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter, Candida auris, Clostridioides difficile, carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, and drug-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae "urgent threats." Another 13 germs are labeled as "serious" or "concerning" threats and three are on a "watch list."
The Post adds that the report notes that hospitals have improved their means of tracking drug-resistant and that deaths from hospital infections are down.
"A lot of progress has been made, but the bottom line is that antibiotic resistance is worse than we previously thought," Michael Craig, the CDC's senior advisor on antibiotic resistance, tells the Post.