Health officials in the US are sounding the alarm over drug-resistant bacteria

Summary

The number of infections by drug-resistant, “nightmare bacteria” rose by almost 70 percent between 2019 and 2023 in the United States, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the country’s national public health agency.Driving the increase are drug-resistant bacteria with the so-called “NDM gene” (New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase), researchers said. Bacteria with the NDM gene were once considered “exotic” and were linked to only a small number of patients, mostly outside the US.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listOnly one type of antibiotics, known as carbapenems, have been known to work against some “nightmare bacteria”. However, the presence of NDM-gene bacteria can now render these entirely ineffective as well.What has the report on drug-resistant bacteria found?While absolute numbers of people with drug-resistant bacterial infections in the US remain low, cases have risen at an alarming rate in recent years, the researchers reported on Monday.“The rise of NDMs in the US is a grave danger and very worrisome,” said David Weiss, an Emory University infectious diseases researcher, The Associated Press news agency reported.Researchers had access to data from 29 states that test for and report cases of carbapenem-resistant bacteria. They said there were 4,341 cases of carbapenem-resistant bacterial infections in those states in 2023, with 1,831 of them the NDM-gene variety.How do bacteria become drug-resistant?“Antimicrobial resistance” can occur when bacteria develop new ways to defend themselves against the drugs used to kill them.The misuse of antibiotics has driven the rise – people not finishing prescribed courses of antibiotics or receiving unnecessary prescriptions, which don’t fully kill off an infection, can enable bacteria to get “used” to an antibiotic and grow resistant to it. Resistant bacteria are then able to survive and spread their genes to other bacteria.The rate of carbapenem-resistant infections in th...