CDC: Overuse of Antibiotics Is Killing Americans

By Lisa Collier Cool Sep 16, 2013 1.2k Recommend

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by Lisa Collier Cool

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More than two million Americans fall prey to drug-resistant infections annually, and 23,000 of them die, federal officials announced in the first estimate of this

toll. The leading killer is C. difficile, which causes at least 250,000 illnesses and 14,000 deaths each year, according to a landmark new report on the most deadly superbug threats. About half of all antibiotics are prescribed needlessly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reveals in the report. And overuse of antibiotics has made existing wonder drugs that worked for decades useless against bacteria that have mutated to resist them, warns CDC director Tom Frieden, MD, MPH. Many bacteria are making dangerous advances against antibiotics, which are increasingly ineffective against life-threatening infections," says Dr. Frieden. Were getting closer and closer to the edge of the cliff when were dealing with untreatable infections. When we no longer have that second-tier drug to rely on, thats when it becomes a matter of life and death. Without immediate action, adds Dr. Frieden, many patients will be in the post antibiotic era. For some organisms and some patients, its already too late. For example, the CDC recently identified highly lethal nightmare bacteria that can resist all antibiotics, kill a high proportion of people it infects, and spread from person to person, he added. Whats more, very few new antibiotics are in the drug pipeline, so it could take a decade or more before new weapons against these killer infections are available. Learn the Symptoms of a True Sinus Infection

The Most Dangerous Superbugs

For the first time, the CDC has ranked the 18 most dangerous drug-resistant superbugs into three categories: urgent, serious, and concerning. If we dont act now, our medicine cabinet will be empty and we wont have the antibiotics we need to save lives, cautions Dr. Frieden. The urgent category consists of the three scariest superbug threats:

 C. difficile. This infection causes life-threatening diarrhea and typically targets people who have had both recent medical care and antibiotics. Its most likely to strike hospitalized or recently hospitalized patients, causing 250,000 infections and 14,000 deaths a year. Fatalities from this infection have soared by 400 percent between 2000 and 2007, largely because a stronger strain emerged that is resistant to fluoroquinolone antibiotics commonly used for other infections. Carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae (CRE). These are the nightmare bacteria that are resistant to all or nearly all antibiotics, including carbapenem, usually considered the antibiotic of last resort. They cause more than 9,300 infections a year and up to half of cases are fatal. Drug-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae. This sexually transmitted disease is highly contagious and infects 246,000 Americans a year. It is resistant to many types of antibiotics. If this superbug becomes widespread in the US over the next decade, the CDC estimates that an additional 75,000 women will develop pelvic inflammatory disease, a major cause of infertility, and an additional 15,000 men will be stricken with epididymitis (swelling and infection of the tube that connects the testicles to the vas deferens.) The report also includes a dozen more superbugs with a threat level of serious or concerning. These include MRSA (methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus) and drug-resistant forms of pneumonia, tuberculosis, candida (a fungus), salmonella (a cause of food poisoning), and group B strep (bacteria that cause severe illnesses, ranging from bloodstream infection to pneumonia, meningitis and skin infections). Surprising Benefits of Probiotics

A 4-Point Action Plan to Fight Antibiotic Resistance

To combat the looming antibiotic apocalypse--the day when none of the available treatments will work against certain microbes--the CDC has identified 4 important steps that healthcare providers, the government, industry, and patients should

take: Preventing the spread of infection. The best way to combat overuse of antibiotics is to reduce the risk of getting sick in the first place. These measures include getting vaccines for preventable diseases, better infection control in healthcare facilities, safe food preparation, and hand washing, which as I recently reported, is the easiest, cheapest way to stay healthy. Better tracking of superbugs. Dr. Frieden says that even the alarming toll of more than two million illnesses and 23,000 deaths annually in the US from resistant infections is a very conservative estimate. Additionally, several superbugs that originated in Europe and Asia were not identified as major threats until they spread to the US. The CDC will continue to gather data on new and existing superbugs, risk factors for their spread, and what can be done to vanquish these threats. Smarter use of antibiotics. What the CDC calls stewardship is the most important action to tackle antibiotic resistance, since up to half of all antibiotics in people and almost all in animals (such as use in livestock) is unnecessary. Patients shouldnt pressure doctors to prescribe antibiotics for viral infections (they dont work on these illnesses) and doctors shouldnt reach for their prescription pad merely to please patients. Many common ailments can be best treated without antibiotics, so always ask what other options there are if your doctor advises them. Developing new drugs and diagnostic tests. Since microbes will always mutate to outsmart the treatments designed to kill them, its essential to increase the number of new antibiotics in the drug pipeline and come up with better tests to track development of resistance. As I reported recently, only seven new drugs are currently in development to combat the most lethal superbugs, such as CRE