Candida auris is a yeast responsible for many infections. Resistant to most antifungal drugs, this fungus causes several deaths worldwide. Optical microscope view. (Photo by: BSIP/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
CHICAGO – The Center for Disease and Control’s (CDC) latest Antimicrobial Resistance Threats Report shows that there is an increase in certain drug-resistant germs across the United States.
New CDC report outlines U.S. drug-resistant threats
The backstory:
The CDC’s Antimicrobial Resistance Threats Report groups bacteria and fungi into urgent, serious and concerning threats — with urgent being the most serious and concerning being the least. The current “Urgent Threats” include Candida auris (C. auris), carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter, carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (CRE) and drug-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae.
Under “Serious Threats,” the CDC lists the following bacteria and fungi — Clostridioides difficile (C. diff), drug-resistant Campylobacter, drug-resistant Candida, drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis, drug-resistant Neisseria meningitidis, drug-resistant Nontyphoidal Salmonella, drug-resistant Salmonella Typhi, drug-resistant Shigella, drug-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae, extended-spectrum cephalosporin-resistant Enterobacterales (ESC-RE), methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE)
Finally, Clindamycin-resistant group B Streptococcus (GBS) and drug-resistant group A Streptococcus GAS) are listed as “Concerning Threats.”
According to the CDC, the threats in the report lead to 9.7 million infections and 50,800 deaths in the U.S. each year.
Why you should care:
The CDC states that these germs matter because they can limit treatment choices and make routine care much harder. For example, C. auris can cause infections ranging from mild skin problems to bloodstream infections and CRE can infect the urinary tract, blood and other parts of the body.
Some threats spread more easily in healthcare settings, especially among people with serious medical conditions or devices like breathing tubes, feeding tubes, ventilators or catheters. People can also carry C. auris without symptoms and spread it to surfaces, and C. diff remains one of the most common healthcare-associated infections in hospitals even though it is not typically drug-resistant, says the CDC.
By the numbers:
According to the CDC, C. auris clinical cases have climbed every year after the fungus was first reported in the U.S. in 2016, reaching 4,523 in 2023 after a more than 50% jump from 2022 and a nearly tenfold rise since 2019. That number is more than double for screening cases, reaching 9,270 screened cases in 2023.
For C. diff, the CDC estimates that the total number of cases has slowly begun to rise since the number of cases dropped in 2020. Older adults who are 65 and older had infection rates 4.5 to 5 times higher than younger people.
In 2023, the CDC estimated 412,504 C. diff cases with 11,339 deaths among those hospitalized with C. diff. 14,878 CRE cases in hospitalized patients were reported, with 1,252 deaths. The CDC also reported 787,000 drug-resistant gonorrhea infections.
Financially, the CDC reports that there were more than $6.4 billion in C. diff costs, $174,114,082 in CRE costs and $214,508,000 in lifetime medical costs for drug-resistant gonorrhea.
What’s next:
According to CDC, the agency is leaning on state health departments, hospital reporting, specialized lab testing and whole genome sequencing to spot resistant germs earlier.
The Minnesota Department of Health, for example, saw disseminated gonococcal infection cases increase four-fold in 2024 and worked with CDC, alongside Alaska’s Section of Epidemiology, to test samples, identify strain types and look for markers that may point to more severe infections.
As of April, more than 20 states are sharing detailed C. auris case data through FungiSurv with the CDC.
The Source: This story was written using information from the Center for Disease and Control’s Antimicrobial Resistance Threats Report and was reported out of Eden Prairie, Minnesota.