NEW YORK (AP) — Infection rates of the so‑called “nightmare bacteria,” notorious for resisting drugs, rose by 70% between 2019 and 2023, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The bacterium is difficult to treat because its gene, known as NDM, can replicate, according to CDC scientists in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Only two antibiotics work against the infection; they are costly and must be administered intravenously, they said.
The bacterium, whose gene was once considered exotic, had been linked to a small number of patients treated outside the United States. Although the numbers remain small, the rate of U.S. cases has quintupled in recent years, researchers reported.
“The rise of NDM in the United States is a grave danger and highly concerning,” said in an email David Weiss, an infectious disease researcher at Emory University in Atlanta.
It is very likely that many people are carrying this resistant bacterium without realizing it, which could fuel its spread, CDC scientists said.
This could be a determining factor in medical care nationwide, as infections once considered routine and easy to treat, such as urinary tract infections, could become chronic problems, said Dr. Maroya Walters, one of the report’s authors.
In recent years, the CDC has highlighted the nightmare bacteria’s resistance to a wide range of antibiotics. That includes carbapenems, a class of antibiotics considered the last resort for treating serious infections.
Researchers drew data from 29 states that performed the respective tests on patients and identified the bacteria resistant to carbapenems. They tallied 4,341 cases in 2023, of which 1,831 were the NDM variant. The researchers did not report how many infected patients died.
An investigator not affiliated with the study said the increase is likely linked to the COVID-19 pandemic.
