Covid pandemic increased antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections: Study
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Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) secondary infections have been linked to the pandemic in the past. It is thought to be a result of increased antibiotic use to treat COVID-19 patients and interruptions to infection prevention and control measures in overburdened health systems
The pandemic took so much from everyone's loved ones: time, mental health, physical health, and just as we began to believe that living with the coronavirus was possible, here's another bad news.
People hospitalised during the pandemic for Covid and other reasons have a higher prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections than people hospitalised before the pandemic says a study.
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Antibiotic-resistant infections claimed the lives of an estimated 1.2 million people worldwide in 2019, with the number anticipated to increase by more than tenfold by 2050.
The study, which was presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Portugal this year, looked at how the pandemic affected antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in 271 hospitals across the United States.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) secondary infections have been linked to the pandemic in the past. It is thought to be a result of increased antibiotic use to treat COVID-19 patients and interruptions to infection prevention and control measures in overburdened health systems.
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During the pre-pandemic period, 1,789,458 patients were admitted to the hospital, and 3,729,208 were hospitalised during the pandemic.
In the pre-pandemic period, there were 63,263 people admitted to the hospital with at least one AMR infection, and during the pandemic, this number more than doubled, increasing to a whopping 129,410.
AMR was shown to be more prevalent during the pandemic, with rates of 4.92 per 100 admissions during the epidemic and 4.11 per 100 admissions before the pandemic, according to the study.
These new findings emphasise the significance of closely monitoring the influence of Covid-19 on antibiotic resistance rates, stated Merck's Dr Karri Bauer.
As per him it's especially concerning because drug resistance has been increasing in both SARS-CoV-2 positive and negative patients during the pandemic.
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(With inputs from agencies)
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