TUESDAY, March 5 (HealthDay News) -- A "nightmare" bacteria that is resistant to powerful antibiotics and kills half of those it infects has surfaced in nearly 200 U.S. hospitals and nursing homes, federal health officials reported Tuesday.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 4 percent of U.S. hospitals and 18 percent of nursing homes had treated at least one patient with the bacteria, called Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), within the first six months of 2012.
"CRE are nightmare bacteria. Our strongest antibiotics don't work and patients are left with potentially untreatable infections," CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden said in a news release. "Doctors, hospital leaders and public health [officials] must work together now to implement the CDC's 'detect and protect' strategy and stop these infections from spreading."
"The good news," Frieden added at an afternoon teleconference, "is we now have an opportunity to prevent its further spread." But, he continued, "We only have a limited window of opportunity to stop this infection from spreading to the community and spreading to more organisms."
CRE are in a family of more than 70 bacteria called enterobacteriaceae, including Klebsiella pneumoniae and E. coli, that normally live in the digestive system.
In recent years, some of these bacteria have become resistant to last-resort antibiotics known as carbapenems.
Although CRE bacteria are not yet found nationwide, they have increased fourfold within the United States in the past decade, with most cases reported in the Northeast.
Health officials said they're concerned about the rapid spread of the bacteria, which can endanger the lives of patients and healthy people. For example, in the last 10 years, the CDC tracked one CRE from one health-care facility to similar facilities in 42 states.
One type of CRE, a resistant form of Klebsiella pneumoniae, has increased sevenfold in the past decade, according to the CDC's March 5 Vital Signs report.
"To see bacteria that are resistant is worrisome, because this group of bacteria are very common," said Dr. Marc Siegel, clinical associate professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City.
Most CRE infections to date have been in patients who had prolonged stays in hospitals, long-term facilities and nursing homes, the report said.
The bacteria kill up to half the patients whose bloodstream gets infected and are easily spread from patient to patient on the hands of health-care workers, the CDC said.
Moreover, CRE bacteria can transfer their antibiotic resistance to other bacteria of the same type.
This problem is the result of the overuse of antibiotics, Siegel said. "The more you use an antibiotic, the more resistance is going to emerge," he said. "This is an indictment of the overuse of this class of antibiotic."
What's needed are new antibiotics, Siegel said, adding that pharmaceutical companies lack the financial motivation to develop them right now. "Eventually, there will be enough resistance so drug companies will have a financial incentive. In the meantime, lives can be lost," he said.
Added Dr. Ghinwa Dumyati, associate professor of medicine at the University of Rochester in New York: "At this time, our best prevention is detection and infection control. The incidence [of CRE] is low and we are looking to prevent it before it gets much higher and we cannot control it."
To beat back the spread of these bacteria, the CDC wants hospitals and other health-care facilities to take the following steps:
- Enforce infection-control precautions.
- Group together patients with CRE.
- Segregate staff, rooms and equipment to patients with CRE.
- Tell facilities when patients with CRE are transferred.
- Use antibiotics carefully.
Additional funding of research and technology is critical to prevent and quickly identify CRE, the CDC said.
Countries where CRE is more common have had some success controlling it.
Israel, for example, worked to reduce CRE in its 27 hospitals, and CRE rates dropped by more than 70 percent. Some U.S. facilities and states have also seen similar reductions, the agency said.
"We have seen in outbreak after outbreak that when facilities and regions follow the CDC's prevention guidelines, CRE can be controlled and even stopped," Dr. Michael Bell, acting director of the CDC's Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, said in the news release. "As trusted health-care providers, it is our responsibility to prevent further spread of these deadly bacteria."
Siegel said there are measures patients can take to reduce their risk of infection. "No. 1 on the list is [not to] wish that your hospital stay is extended. Patients think they are safer at the hospital, but that may not be true," he said. "And try to go into a clean hospital."
Patients should also make sure doctors and staff wear gloves and wash their hands when treating them, he said.
More information
For more information on CRE bacteria, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
