CRE joins the ranks of other hospital-acquired infections, such as MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and Clostridium difficile, that are drug resistant and proven challenging to stem out in recent years.
It consists of more than 70 different types of bacteria, including Klebsiella pneumoniae and E. coli, which generally live in the digestive system.
In just the last decade, more and more hospitalized patients have been infected with the difficult to treat bug. Dubbed as the “nightmare bacteria” by health officials, CRE has appeared in medical facilities in 42 states.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Dr. Tom Frieden stated, “Our strongest antibiotics don’t work and patients are left with potentially untreatable infections.”
Data analysis of about 3,900 US hospitals
The CDC analyzed data from about 3,900 U.S. hospitals in the first six months of 2012. The analysis revealed the bugs are rampant in certain areas, including the Northeast and especially problematic in long-term acute-care hospitals.
It was noted that nearly four percent of acute-care hospitals and 18 percent of the specialized long-term acute care hospitals in the nation saw at least one case of dangerous CRE bacteria. One such hospital in Florida reportedly had a 44 percent infection rate.
CRE infections for Klebsiella pneumoniae, have increased sevenfold in the last ten years. In one of the worst outbreaks, the bug swept through the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland last summer, infecting 18 and killing seven patients, including a 16-year-old boy.
Though, infections from CRE are rare, statistics reveal a fourfold rise over the last decade (climbing from 1.2 percent in 2001 to 4.2 percent in 2011).
The bacteria can be fatal in people who develop blood stream infections, severe influenza, pneumonia, and urinary tract infections. Patients with a weak immune system and those having ventilators or catheters are the most vulnerable.
CRE kills nearly half the patients who develop a bloodstream infection from the potentially dangerous bacteria.
CDC’s report recommends
Stringent infection-control measures need to be adopted to stem the rate of infections. Health care providers should minimize the use of catheters, endotracheal tubes and other unnecessary medical devices.
Moreover, practice of washing hands is imperative. Also, specific medical staff members should take care of the CRE patients in a facility so that they don’t spread the bacteria to uninfected patients.
Dr. Tom Frieden stated, “Doctors, hospital leaders, and public health, must work together now to implement CDC’s ‘detect and protect’ strategy and stop these infections from spreading.”
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