U.S. hospitals saw a surge in superbug infections and deaths during the ​​COVID-19 pandemic—a setback of progress in combating antimicrobial resistance in recent years—according to a new report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Superbugs refer to bacteria and fungi that have become resistant to commonly used antibiotics and other medications to treat the infections they cause.
In a new report (pdf) released on July 12, researchers found the pandemic caused at least 15 percent increases in both resistant hospital-onset infections and deaths in 2020.
Although public health efforts had brought down antimicrobial-resistant deaths in hospitals by nearly 30 percent between 2012 and 2017, the pandemic has pushed health care facilities, health departments, and communities “near their breaking points in 2020,” CDC head Rochelle Walensky wrote in the report….