COVID pandemic reversed years of progress fighting viruses and bacteria, leading to tens of thousands of deaths

The COVID-19 pandemic reversed years of progress made combating resistance to things that kill or slow the spread of viruses and bacteria, leading to the deaths of tens of thousands of people, according to a new CDC report.

More than 29,400 people died in 2020 from these “antimicrobial-resistant” infections, with nearly 40% acquired during hospital stays, according to CDC’s “COVID-19: U.S. Impact on Antimicrobial Resistance, Special Report 2022.”

The report concludes that the threat of antimicrobial-resistant infections is not only still present but has gotten worse — with resistant hospital-onset infections and deaths both increasing at least 15% during the first year of the pandemic.

“This setback can and must be temporary,” said Michael Craig, director of CDC’s Antibiotic Resistance Coordination & Strategy Unit. “The COVID-19 pandemic has unmistakably shown us that antimicrobial resistance will not stop if we let down our guard; there is no time to waste. The best way to avert a pandemic caused by an antimicrobial-resistant pathogen (an organism that causes disease) is to identify gaps and invest in prevention to keep our nation safe.”

In the report, CDC analyzed the state of antimicrobial resistance in the United States immediately following the 2020 peaks of the COVID-19 pandemic. The data show an alarming increase in resistant infections starting during hospitalization, growing an overall 15% from 2019 to 2020 among seven pathogens.

In U.S. hospitals, CDC data show significant surges in antibiotic use and difficulty in following infection prevention and control guidance, which are key to preventing antimicrobial-resistant infections and their spread, the CDC said.

In a 2019 report, the last year comprehensive healthcare and community data were available to calculate, CDC estimated that more than 2.8 million antimicrobial-resistant infections occur in the U.S. each year, with more than 35,000 people dying as a result.

Historic progress made in antibiotic prescribing was reversed as well during the pandemic. Antibiotics were often the first option given to treat people with pneumonia-like symptoms of fever and shortness of breath even though this often represented the viral illness of COVID-19, for which antibiotics are not effective. From March 2020 to October 2020, almost 80% of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 received an antibiotic.