CDC Issues Urgent Warning About Six ‘Silent Killers’ Growing in US

Health officials are sounding the alarm about the rise of six “silent killers” in the United States that are becoming resistant to drugs commonly used to treat them.

A new CDC report on antimicrobial resistance threats found that infections with six hard-to-treat germs increased by at least 20% throughout the COVID pandemic compared to 2019 and that infections remained elevated through 2022, the latest year for which data were available.

Of particular concern is the emergence of an antifungal-resistant fungus, which can cause serious illness and often spreads in healthcare settings. Cases of Candida auris increased fivefold between 2019 and 2022.

Officials estimate that 29,400 people died from antimicrobial-resistant infections in 2020, but have admitted that is likely a major underestimate due to underreporting – and said the 2019 count of 35,000 deaths per year was likely more accurate.

The increase fuels fears that deaths from these once-treatable germs will rise as drugs used to fight them cease to be effective.

Antimicrobial-resistant infections are those that cannot be treated with standard drugs.

The latest CDC report looked at seven hospital pathogens and found that infections with six of them were elevated compared to years before the Covid pandemic.

Of these six bacteria, five are drug-resistant and one is a drug-resistant fungus.

These include carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter, vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE), extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBLs), multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Candida auris (C. auris).

MRSA was the only drug-resistant pathogen among the seven for which cases remained stable from 2019 to 2022.

Poor infection control practices — such as not washing hands or changing personal protective equipment between patients — can spread these germs within a hospital and even outside the facility.

Additionally, overuse of antibiotics increases the likelihood that pathogens will become resistant to the drugs, as it promotes the survival of resistant strains and facilitates their spread as other non-resistant types are eliminated.

The CDC said in its report: “The pandemic has reversed much of the progress the nation has made on combating antimicrobial resistance, particularly in hospitals.

“The United States must continue to invest in prevention-focused public health actions to combat antimicrobial resistance.”

Officials said Covid may have caused the increase due to longer hospital stays, shortages and increased pressure on staff and resources, and weakened infection control measures.

They said these measures would have facilitated the spread of multi-drug resistant bacteria in hospitals, increasing the risk of additional infections.

Authorities were particularly concerned about the fungus C. auris, which can cause sepsis. They said cases had increased nearly fivefold over the same period.

Sepsis is a life-threatening condition that occurs when the body’s immune system overreacts to an infection and triggers severe inflammation that causes organs to shut down.

Up to a third of patients with this disease do not survive.

Among the patients who caught C. auris as a result of the pandemic was Lorrie McCreary, who died from the infection in June 2022.

The 86-year-old man was initially admitted to hospital with pneumonia and appeared to be recovering well.

But her condition quickly deteriorated, forcing her doctor to run a battery of tests that revealed the presence of the fungus, which she is believed to have caught in hospital, likely from an oxygen tube.

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This set off a fatal chain of events, leading to sepsis, kidney failure and a fatal stroke.

Her daughter Sharon, 61, said she believed her mother would still be alive if she had not caught the infection.

According to data, there are more than 80,000 cases of MRSA and 11,000 deaths each year in the United States.

For the report, the CDC analyzed data on seven antimicrobial-resistant infections submitted by hospitals and laboratories across the country.

The report also reveals that during the Covid pandemic, nearly 80% of patients hospitalized for Covid received an antibiotic from March to October 2020.

This was initially due to difficulties in distinguishing Covid from community-acquired pneumonia early on, officials said.

But antibiotics won’t work against Covid because they are designed to target bacteria, not a virus.