The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic accompanied an “alarming increase” in drug-resistant infections that are spread in hospitals, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shared in a new report.
Following a recorded 30% decline in deaths from hospital-acquired antimicrobial-resistant infections, the public health agency’s data indicated “at least” a 15% increase in both cases and deaths attributed to resistant infections that began in hospitals from 2019 to 2020.
Writing in the report (PDF), CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, M.D., attributed the jump to a “significant increase in antimicrobial use [and] difficulty in following infection prevention and control guidance” during the early days of the pandemic.
Previous years’ “historic gains” in antibiotic stewardship were thrown out the window when clinicians initially turned to antibiotics when treating COVID-19 symptoms, Walensky wrote. Almost 80% of patients who were hospitalized with COVID-19 between March and October received an antibiotic, according to the report.
Further increasing the risk for healthcare-associated, antimicrobial-resistant infections were sicker patients who required longer stays and more frequent use of devices such as catheters and ventilators where several of these infections thrive, the CDC wrote. Hospitals also struggled to maintain infection control due to personal protective equipment supply issues and staffing shortages, the CDC said.
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