CDC Finds Threat of Antimicrobial Resistant Infections Worsened During Pandemic

ATLANTA — The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report on Tuesday which examines how COVID-19 impacted the progress of combating antimicrobial resistance, which occurs when changes in bacteria cause drug treatments to become less effective.  

The nearly 50-page report finds that the threat of antimicrobial resistant infections has gotten worse, with more than 29,400 people dying from antimicrobial resistant infections associated with health care during the first year of the pandemic. 

Of those infections, nearly 40% of the people became infected while being treated in a hospital.

In total, resistant hospital-onset infections and deaths both increased at least 15% from 2019 to 2020 among seven pathogens.

The increase in these infections, according to the CDC,  is likely due to hospitals treating sicker patients during the pandemic who required longer use of medical devices like catheters and ventilators.

Other factors like personal protective equipment supply challenges, staffing shortages and longer patient visits also likely led to increases in antimicrobial resistant infections, according to the CDC. 

To target the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance, the CDC implemented five main actions to better prepare the U.S. including; tracking and data; preventing infections; antibiotic and antifungal use; environment and sanitation; vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics. 

All of these action items were impacted by the pandemic, as more antibiotics and antifungals were prescribed to patients with COVID-19,  and the CDC’s antimicrobial resistant programs were leveraged to support the nation’s response to COVID-19.

Specifically, almost 80% of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 received an antibiotic from March to October 2020, even though antibiotics are not effective against viruses like the one that causes COVID-19.

Approximately half of hospitalized patients received ceftriaxone, which was commonly prescribed with azithromycin, which the CDC says likely reflects difficulties in hospitals not being able to distinguish COVID-19 from community-acquired pneumonia when a patient first arrived at the hospital for assessment. 

The CDC’s AR Lab Network was established in 2016 to provide nationwide lab capacity to rapidly detect antibiotic resistance and inform local responses to prevent spread and protect people. 

The AR Lab Network received and tested 23% fewer specimens or isolates in 2020 than in 2019, and some isolates remain untested due to testing backlogs as health care facilities and public health staff shifted focus to COVID-19.

Moving forward the CDC will rely on the U.S. National Action Plan to support innovative approaches to developing and deploying diagnostic tests and treatment strategies. 

The CDC has already invested $160 million into this research, and will continue to invest in prevention-focused public health actions, such as accurate laboratory detection and rapid response and containment to safeguard against threats of antimicrobial-resistant pathogens. 

Alexa can be reached at [email protected]