The COVID-19 pandemic ‘reversed’ the progress made in the fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the US, a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has shown.
The COVID-19 US Impact on Microbial Resistance, Special Report 2022 concluded that the threat of AMR worsened, with resistant hospital-onset infections and deaths both increasing at least 15% among seven pathogens during the first year of the pandemic.
Antifungal-resistant threats also rose in 2020, the report has shown, with a 26% increase in infections in hospitals. In comparison, a 2019 report indicated ’significant’ national reductions, with AMR infections falling by 27% from 2012-2017.
According to the CDC, during the first year of the pandemic, more than 29,400 people died from AMR infections commonly associated with healthcare, with 40% of this number acquiring the infection while they were in hospital.
AMR occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change over time and no longer respond to medicine, making infections harder to treat and increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death.
As a result of drug resistance, antibiotics and other antimicrobial medicines become ineffective and infections become increasingly difficult or impossible to treat, with the World Health Organization (WHO) citing AMR as one of the top ten threats to global health.
In US hospitals, CDC data showed a significant surge in antibiotic use and difficulty in following infection prevention and control guidance, which are key to preventing AMR infections and their spread, as hospitals experienced personal protective equipment (PPE) supply challenges, staffing shortages and longer patient stays.
Antibiotics were, in many cases, the first option given to treat those who presented with pneumonia-like symptoms, often a result of COVID-19, for which antibiotics are not effective. From March 2020 to October 2020, almost 80% of patients hospitalised with COVID-19 received an antibiotic, the CDC said.
Michael Craig, director of CDC’s Antibiotic Resistance Coordination and Strategy Unit, said: “This setback can and must be temporary. The COVID-19 pandemic has unmistakably shown us that AMR will not stop if we let down our guard; there is no time to waste. The best way to avert a pandemic caused by an AMR pathogen is to identify gaps and invest in prevention to keep our nation safe.”