Health departments working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) Antibiotic Resistance (AR) Lab Network found more than 220 instances of germs with “unusual” antibiotic resistance genes in the United States last year, according to a new CDC Vital Signs report. Germs with “unusual resistance” are resistant to all or most antibiotics tested, making them hard to treat; are uncommon in a geographic area or the U.S.; and/or have special genes that allow them to spread their resistance to other germs. New data suggest that implementing CDC’s containment strategy can prevent thousands of difficult-to-treat or potentially untreatable infections.
3 Things to Know:
- The CDC containment strategy includes rapid identification of resistance, infection control assessments, testing patients without symptoms who may carry and spread the germ, coordinated response, and continued infection control assessments.
- The containment strategy complements foundational CDC efforts, including improving antibiotic use and preventing infections, and builds on existing detection and response infrastructure.
- Recent nationwide investments, through CDC’s Antibiotic Resistance Solutions Initiative, to states in lab, infection control, and response infrastructure are enabling tailored, rapid and aggressive investigations to keep resistance from spreading in health care settings.
Read the report, view the factsheet, or tune into the Vital Signs Town Hall on April 10 to learn more about what CDC is doing to combat Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria.