“Nightmare” superbugs continue to lurk in US, but control efforts working

Enlarge / This 2014 CDC image shows two Petri dish culture plates growing bacteria in the presence of discs containing various antibiotics. The bacterial isolate on the left plate appears to be susceptible to the antibiotics on the discs; and is therefore; unable to grow adjacent to the discs. The plate on the right was inoculated with a Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) bacterium that proved to be resistant to almost all of the antibiotics tested. (credit: CDC/James Gathany) Several types of “nightmare” drug-resistant bacteria are lurking within healthcare settings across the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest surveillance data. But the data also suggests that recently implemented control efforts are helping to squelch the deadly germs. The data, published Tuesday in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, focused on bacteria resistant to a group of antibiotics called carbapenems, which are often used as drugs of last resort. Carbapenem resistance often shows up in bacteria in the Enterobacteriaceae family, which includes common gut pathogens such as E. coli and Klebsiella. These carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) burst onto the clinical scene starting in the early 2000s and they’ve tended to carry resistance to many or nearly all other antibiotics, in addition to carbapenems. In fact, CRE cause dreadful infections with mortality rates as high as 50 percent—aka, nightmare cases, as the CDC likes to call them. For this reason, CRE are considered among the biggest microbial threats by the CDC and the World Health Organization. In 2009, the CDC created a CRE-specific guidance to try to monitor and effectively control and eliminate CRE cases from healthcare settings, where they often cause blood, catheter, and central line infections. The guidance instructs healthcare workers to do things like use laboratory testing to surveil clinical isolates, screen healthcare workers that may be asymptotically carrying the deadly germs, place infected patients in single rooms and under contact precautions, and up hand-washing. Read 9 remaining paragraphs | Comments source: https://arstechnica.com/?p=1287915 #Headlines by: Beth Mole

Original Post: https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/04/nightmare-superbugs-continue-to-lurk-in-us-but-control-efforts-working/