The number of infections caused by antibiotic-resistant superbugs in the United States has tripled in the last 10 years, according to Reuters, citing the latest report by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta.
The CDC warns that the germ has already penetrated to almost 4 percent. of all American hospitals and to about 18 percent. specialist facilities, which is particularly dangerous, because they are often visited by patients in the most severe states.
They are enterobacteria (Enterobacteriaceae) resistant to the action of carbapenems, beta-lactam antibiotics related to penicillins and cephalosporins. These are rod-shaped intestinal microbes. Some of them have become resistant to almost all available antibiotics.
Infected patients often cannot be treated effectively because these microbes are not affected by even the strongest antibiotics, said Tom Frieden, director of the CDC in the report. In the last 10 years, every second patient who was infected with this bacterium died in the blood. However, the report does not state how many patients infected with resistant enterobacteria died.
Most often, infections with superbugs occur in the most severely ill patients who undergo procedures, such as catheterization, which facilitate their penetration into the body. (PAP)
zbw/ agt/