NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – In 2017, multidrug-resistant infections led to $1.9 billion in healthcare costs, 448,224 days in the hospital and 11,852 deaths among older adults in the United States, according to a new analysis.
The greatest burden was associated with infections caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) and extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Enterobacteriaceae.
“Efforts to prevent these infections could save a significant number of lives and healthcare resources,” researchers write in Clinical Infectious Diseases.
“This new study is a stark reminder of the incredible and costly burden of antibiotic-resistant infections on our patients and our nation’s health care system,” Dr. Daniel McQuillen, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), said in a news release.
“We must respond to this growing public health threat with strong federal investments in key areas to ensure that safe and effective antibiotics, upon which modern medicine relies, are available when patients need them,” Dr. McQuillen added.
The estimates are based on a retrospective cohort analysis of patients 65 and older admitted to the Department of Veterans Affairs health care system. The analysis included 87,509 patients with positive cultures for multidrug-resistant bacteria and 835,048 matched controls.
“For the first time, we have data showing that antibiotic-resistant infections are disproportionately lethal in older Americans compared to their size of the population,” study author Dr. David Hyun, director of The Pew Charitable Trusts’ antibiotic resistance project, said in the news release.
“At the same time, these infections impose a huge financial burden on Medicare. As our population ages, policymakers must act to protect seniors and ease the costs to Medicare of treating drug-resistant superbug infections,” Dr. Hyun said.
In a companion paper in Clinical Infectious Diseases, the IDSA and The Pew Charitable Trusts say urgent and comprehensive federal action is needed to reduce mortality and Medicare costs associated with antimicrobial resistance.
The authors provide a series of policy recommendations to accomplish that, including federal investments in several key areas, including antibiotic stewardship, antibiotic innovation, surveillance, research, diagnostics, infection prevention, the infectious diseases workforce and global coordination.
A critical piece of the solution is the bipartisan Pioneering Antimicrobial Subscriptions to End Upsurging Resistance (PASTEUR) Act, which would change the way the federal government pays for novel antibiotics to revitalize the pipeline and promote stewardship, they say.
The authors also call on “colleagues in healthcare, public health, and research to join us in advocating for solutions needed to secure the safe and effective arsenal of antibiotics on which modern medicine relies.”
The study was supported with funding from The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Infectious Diseases Society of America. The authors have declared no relevant conflicts of interest.
SOURCE: https://bit.ly/3ABEE1l and https://bit.ly/3atsGMu Clinical Infectious Diseases, online October 7, 2021.
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