SuperbugsLow level of worrisome resistant bacterium in U.S.
A new multistate surveillance study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found that the incidence of a multidrug-resistant bacterial pathogen capable of causing severe infections and spreading easily is low and mainly confined to healthcare facilities. And CDC officials would like to keep it that way. a team of researchers from the CDC and public health departments across the country report that the overall annual incidence of carbapenem-nonsusceptible Acinetobacter baumannii is 1.2 cases per 100,000 persons, and that nearly all the cases were healthcare-associated.
A new multistate surveillance study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found that the incidence of a multidrug-resistant bacterial pathogen capable of causing severe infections and spreading easily is low and mainly confined to healthcare facilities. And CDC officials would like to keep it that way.
In a paper in Emerging Infectious Diseases, a team of researchers from the CDC and public health departments across the country report that the overall annual incidence of carbapenem-nonsusceptible Acinetobacter baumannii is 1.2 cases per 100,000 persons, and that nearly all the cases were healthcare-associated. The incidence rate is lower than those reported for other invasive, healthcare-associated bacterial pathogens, including carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), and Clostridium difficile.
CIDRAP notes that the study also confirmed that carbapenem-nonsusceptible A baumannii is associated with substantial rates of illness and death. Nearly half of all A baumannii samples isolated from clinical cultures in the United States are resistant to carbapenems, which are important last-line antibiotics for treating severe bacterial infections. In addition, the organism is frequently resistant to other classes of antibiotics. That leaves clinicians with few options to treat patients, who tend to be older and have underlying conditions.
A baumannii is a recognized cause of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) such as pneumonia, bacteremia, and urinary tract infection (UTI), and rising resistance to carbapenems has caused concern among global health officials. Carbapenem-resistant A baumannii was recently named as one of the top-three “priority pathogens” by the World Health Organization.
“Acinetobacter has a lot of intrinsic resistance, so once you start picking off other classes of antibiotics, like carbapenems, you really find yourself in a quandary,” CDC epidemiologist and study co-author Alex Kallen, MD, MPH, told CIDRAP News. “It’s probably one of the most challenging HAIs that we face.”
Primarily healthcare-associated infections
The results are from laboratory- and population-based surveillance conducted among 15.2 million people in eight US metropolitan areas in Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Tennessee from 2012 through 2015. The surveillance is part of the CDC’s Emerging
