A recent research study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reveals promising, albeit variable, progress in the battle against drug-resistant infections in U.S. hospitals. The number of such infections dropped by about 30,000 from 2017 to 2022. However, the rating of this decrease is intertwined with specific hospital conditions.
Published in the esteemed JAMA Network Open on March 14th, the study draws from an extensive pool of inpatient hospitalization data from 332 to 606 hospitals, spanning the period from 2012 to 2022. This data, collected from two prominent databases, offers a comprehensive view of select patient conditions, microbiology, and facility-level data. The study’s focus was on patients with clinical cultures indicating drug-resistance to six pathogenic culprits, namely methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus, extended-spectrum cephalosporin-resistant Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae, carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales, carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter spp, and multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
Over seven million clinical cultures underwent analysis in this comprehensive study. The authors of the study highlight the requirement for more resilient and adaptable prevention interventions, especially in the face of ongoing strains on our healthcare systems.
Some vital findings are: MRSA and extended-spectrum cephalosporin-resistant E. coli were the major contributors to drug-resistant infection cases, standing at 44% and 35% respectively. These six pathogens accounted for 569,749 cases, representing 179.6 instances per 10,000 hospitalizations in 2022. A closer look at these infections shows 77% were community-onset (437,657 cases) and 23% were hospital-onset (132,092 cases).
A hopeful sign was noticeable in figures from 2017 to 2022, revealing approximately 570,000 drug-resistant infections in U.S. hospital patients, down from 600,000. This drop manifests as a decrease in the rate of resistant infections from 209.6 to 179.6 per 10,000 hospitalizations. However, the drop has been far from steady, with variations occurring virtually every year.
Particularly concerning is a steady increase in community-onset infections due to a relatively new strain of extended-spectrum cephalosporin-resistant E. coli. According to the researchers, this E. coli sequence type (ST131) has emerged in recent years, causing an upward trend.