Spike in drug-resistant infections prompts CDC warning

A dangerous spike in infections from drug-resistant bacteria is spreading across the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned, signaling a growing threat to effective treatment of common infections. The agency said occurrences of NDM-producing carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (NDM-CRE) have surged in recent years, a development tied to the broader family of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (CRE) that resist some of the strongest antibiotics available. Infections from these bacteria can include urinary tract infections, pneumonia, bloodstream infections and wound infections, and they are often difficult to treat and can be fatal. The rise is concerning for health systems already managing bacterial threats in hospital, nursing home and community settings.

The CDC noted that NDM-CRE infections increased by more than 460% between 2019 and 2023, a sharp climb tied to the enzyme New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase (NDM) that enables resistance to nearly all antibiotics. The agency’s laboratory data also highlighted the potential for rapid spread within communities and the risk that these infections can be easily overlooked or misdiagnosed because they have not been common in the United States and may not be on clinicians’ radar. The trend underscores why experts say timely, targeted testing is critical to identifying infections and guiding appropriate treatment.

This sharp rise in NDM-CRE means we face a growing threat that limits our ability to treat some of the most serious bacterial infections, said Danielle Rankin, an epidemiologist in the CDC’s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, in a CDC press release. She said selecting the right treatment has become more complex and stressed the importance of access to testing that helps clinicians choose targeted therapies. The report adds that rapid diagnosis at or near the point of care can improve outcomes and infection control.

Treatment for carbapenem-resistant infections involves newer antibiotics, including ceftazidime-avibactam, meropenem-vaborbactam, plazomicin and eravacycline, according to clinicians familiar with the evolving therapeutic landscape. Yet experts say the healthcare system faces a bottleneck: a lack of sufficient antibiotics to meet need, in part because drug development for these agents has not been highly profitable. This has contributed to ongoing concerns about how best to manage rising resistance while ensuring patients have access to effective medicines.

The spike is described as part of a broader, ongoing drug-resistance trend that infectious-disease specialists say is not solely a hospital problem. Dr. Marc Siegel, a Fox News medical analyst, called the trend