Category Archives: Superbugs

“Superbug” infections and deaths rose in 2020

Posted on by • Posted in Antibiotic-Resistant Infections, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), Health System, Hospital, Hospital Acquired Infections, Hospital Industry, Infection Control, Infection Control Plan, Infection Rates, Superbugs • Leave a comment

https://mailchi.mp/30feb0b31ba0/the-weekly-gist-july-15-2022?e=d1e747d2d8

While the world’s attention was focused on fighting COVID-19, antibiotic-resistant infections were spreading. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report finds that hospital-acquired infections and deaths from antimicrobial-resistant pathogens increased 15 percent in 2020, compared to 2019. COVID overwhelmed healthcare settings, shifting the focus of infection control resources, resulting in sicker patients with longer catheter and ventilator use, which increased infection risks. Plus, clinicians initially unsure of how to treat the new disease prescribed COVID patients antibiotics at unusually high rates, setting the stage for growing drug resistance.

The Gist: This uptick reverses years of progress made on reducing the number of superbug infections in hospitals. Prior to the pandemic, hospitals were becoming markedly safer places, with fewer hospital-acquired infections, adverse drug reactions, and poor procedural outcomes. 

As health systems exit COVID crisis mode, hospitals must renew their focus on these longstanding goals of the infection control agenda.

There’s (still) a fungus among us

Posted on by • Posted in Candida Auris, Coronavirus, Drug Resistant Bacteria and Fungi, Drug-Resistant Infections, Health System, Hospital, Hospital Acquired Infections, Hospital Industry, Infection Control, Infection Control Plan, Infectious Virus, Pathogen, Superbugs, Surface Decontamination • Leave a comment

https://mailchi.mp/2c6956b2ac0d/the-weekly-gist-january-29-2021?e=d1e747d2d8

Candida auris actively shed in the healthcare environment - Outbreak News Today

Remember 2019, when the scariest “new” pathogen was Candida auris, a drug-resistant fungus that was creeping into hospitals and nursing homes, often proving fatal to elderly and immune-compromised patients who came in contact with it? C. auris proved difficult to eliminate from infected facilities, sometimes requiring drywall to be ripped out of patient rooms in order to fully decontaminate. 

With all of our attention focused on COVID-19, C. auris and other drug resistant bacteria and fungi have been making a resurgence, according to a recent New York Times report. In Los Angeles County alone, 250 facilities now report C. auris infection, up from just a handful before the pandemic.

Unlike COVID-19, these pathogens cling relentlessly to surfaces, so protocols allowing the reuse of protective equipment in order to conserve resources inadvertently provided a mechanism for these bugs to spread. 

Steroids used to treat COVID-19 patients suppress the immune system, making patients more vulnerable. According to one expert, the spread of these drug-resistant infections shows the danger of “seeing the world as a one-pathogen world”.

Providers have had a laser focus on preventing the aerosol spread of COVID—now is the time to double down on surface decontamination and infection mitigation procedures to make sure we don’t meet the end of the pandemic with the rise of other classes of “superbugs”.