New Report Details Rise in Deaths Caused by Superbugs During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Resistance to antibiotics and antifungals rose dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic, causing an estimated 29,400 deaths in the first year of the pandemic. It’s estimated that 40 percent of those were due to hospital-acquired infections, with the remainder occurring in nursing homes and other healthcare facilities.The surge erased much of the progress made in the last decade in the fight to contain these superbugs, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), issued on July 12.Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) was one of the country’s greatest public health concerns prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and it remains so, said CDC director Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH, in a statement accompanying the report. “These setbacks can and must be temporary,” she said.Bacterial and Fungal Infections Resistant to Antibiotics Rose…