Last week, the journal Antibiotic Agents and Chemotherapy posted an accepted manuscript that contains some very bad news: an easy-to-spread gene that makes bacteria resistant to an important class of antibiotics has been found in 2015 samples from a US pig farm.
Last month, researchers in China reported on a gene that makes bacteria resistant to a last-ditch antibiotic. Now, researchers have found that gene in other countries. Meanwhile, CDC reports findings on “nightmare bacteria” CRE.
Last week, FDA warned healthcare providers that the complex design of a piece of endoscopy eqiupment may make it hard to fully disinfect — which means that using it, even in accordance with the manufacturers’ instructions, might allow dangerous bacteria to spread between patients.
Antibiotic-resistant infections kill 23,000 people in the US and sicken two million each year, and the problem is getting worse, warns a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency ranks 18 microorganisms according to their threat to health and the economy, and categorizes three as urgent.
CDC Director Tom Frieden held a press briefing to warn about carapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), which are increasing at an alarming rate.