CDC Reports 9.7 Million Drug-Resistant Infections a Year in the U.S., With 50,800 Deaths
The CDC's new Antimicrobial Resistance Threats Report, based on 2023 data, counts 19 drug-resistant germs causing 9.7 million infections and 50,800 deaths a year, with infections tied to health care accounting for more than 42,000 deaths and nearly $12 billion in costs.
Drug-resistant germs cause an estimated 9.7 million infections and 50,800 deaths in the United States each year, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Tuesday. The figures come from 2023 data in the agency’s Antimicrobial Resistance Threats Report, its first full update since 2019.
The previous report, released in 2019 and based on 2013 data, estimated 2.8 million infections and 35,000 deaths a year. CDC officials cautioned against comparing the two sets of numbers directly, saying the agency expanded its data sources and methods for the new report. Dawn Sievert, a senior science adviser in the CDC’s Antimicrobial Resistance Coordination and Strategy Unit, told Healio the update was meant to create “a new base” for tracking. “It doesn’t mean that we don’t see pathogens going up,” she said. “There are increases.”
Infections commonly tied to health care accounted for more than 42,000 of the deaths and nearly $12 billion in costs in 2023, the CDC said.
Four urgent threats, 13 serious ones
The report sorts 19 germs into threat levels: four urgent, 13 serious and two concerning, with six more on a watch list. The four urgent threats are Candidozyma auris (formerly Candida auris), carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter, carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales and drug-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae.
C. auris, a fungus that spreads in health care facilities, caused 4,523 cases in 2023, a tenfold increase since 2019, and some strains resist nearly all available antifungal drugs, the CDC said. Drug-resistant Neisseria meningitidis, added to the list for the first time as a serious threat, caused 787,000 drug-resistant infections in 2023, with more than $214 million in lifetime medical costs for infections diagnosed that year, according to the report.
Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales caused 14,878 cases in 2023, with 1,252 estimated deaths attributed to the infections.
One downgrade, and a push for new drugs
Clostridioides difficile, or C. difficile, moved down from urgent to serious after its rates fell 21% from 2018 to 2020 and held stable in health care settings from 2020 to 2023. The germ still caused 412,504 cases in 2023, with more than 11,000 deaths among hospitalized patients, according to the report.
“Antimicrobial resistance threatens modern medicine and puts millions of Americans at risk every year,” CDC Director Erica Schwartz said in a statement. “This data shows both the progress we’ve made and the significant work that remains.”
Wendy Armstrong, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said drug-resistant infections prolong hospital stays, raise health care costs and can make routine care such as chemotherapy, organ transplants and joint replacements harder to deliver safely. She urged Congress to pass the bipartisan PASTEUR Act, which would change how new antimicrobial drugs are paid for in order to draw companies back into developing them.
The pipeline of new antibiotics and antifungals has thinned over the years, Gizmodo reported, in part because new drugs must be used sparingly to stay effective, which limits sales. The PASTEUR Act would use a subscription-style payment model, with governments paying a flat amount for a drug regardless of how often it is used.
Reporting based on coverage by Healio, Gizmodo and NBC Chicago.
