A recent CDC study found that the rate of drug-resistant infections fell by about 30,000 between 2017 and 2022, but the change was dependent on the hospital.
The study, published March 14 in JAMA Network Open, analyzed inpatient hospitalization data from 332 to 606 hospitals per year between 2012 through 2022 using two databases that include select patient, microbiology and facility-level data. Researchers identified patients who had a clinical culture of a drug-resistent infection from six pathogens: methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus, extended-spectrum cephalosporin-resistant Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae, carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales, carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter spp, and multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The study analyzed more than 7 million clinical cultures.
“Our findings suggest a need for prevention interventions that can maintain effectiveness despite strain on health care systems and workers,” the study authors wrote.
Here’s what to know:
1. The six pathogens accounted for 569,749 cases and 179.6 cases per 10,000 hospitalizations in 2022.
2. Of these infections, 437,657, or 77%, were community-onset and 132,092, or 23%, were hospital-onset.
3. The pathogens with the highest share of cases were MRSA, at 44% and extended-spectrum cephalosporin-resistant E. coli at 35%.
4. There were nearly 570,000 drug resistant infections in U.S. hospital patients in 2022, a decline from 600,000 in 2017.
5. Overall, the rate of resistant infections decreased from 209.6 to 179.6 per 10,000 hospitalizations. However, the decrease was not consistent. Rates declined between 2012 and 2016, plateaued over 2016 to 2018, increased in 2019, peaked in 2020, then had another decline until 2022.
6. One pathogen saw a steady increase among community-onset infections: extended-spectrum cephalosporin-resistant E. coli. The authors said this was because of an E. coli sequence type (ST)131, which only emerged in recent years.
