U.S. surveillance data show a “dramatic rise in the incidence of a particularly worrisome form of multidrug-resistant bacteria in hospital patients.” CIDRAP has the news.
The CDC reported in Emerging Infectious Diseases that data from their Emerging Infections Program (EIP) Multi-site Gram-negative Surveillance Initiative shows an uptick in certain carbapenemase genes. Infections caused by “CRE—which includes carbapenem-resistant strains of Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Enterobacter—are among the superbugs the CDC keeps track of because they are resistant to multiple classes of antibiotics and are a major concern for hospital patients.”
In 2022, an “estimated 13,387 CRE infections occurred in U.S. hospital patients.” The isolates were all tested for the presence of carbapenemase genes, “which confer broad resistance to beta-lactam antibiotics and can be shared among bacterial species. Of the 1,288 carbapenemase-producing CRE identified from 2016 to 2023, blaKPC was the most common carbapenemase gene detected (79%), followed by blaNDM (20.6%), blaOXA-48-like (7.5%), blaIMP (0.6%), and blaVIM (0.5%).”
The “proportion of isolates carrying blaNDM, which was once rare in the United States, rose from 5.4% in 2016 to 39.8% in 2023. The increase was seen most prominently in E coli, with blaNDM representing 73% of all carbapenemase-producing E coli in 2023.” The researchers emphasize further investigation is required to see if the increase is “occurring nationwide.”
