NDM Bacteria Drive 70% Rise in US Drug-Resistant Infections

Infection rates from drug resistant "nightmare" bacteria in the United States rose nearly 70 percent between 2019 and 2023, driven largely by strains carrying the NDM gene, federal researchers reported Monday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analysis, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, found sharp increases in hard-to-treat carbapenem-resistant infections in 29 states that perform the necessary testing and reporting.

CDC investigators counted 4,341 cases of carbapenem-resistant bacterial infection in those states in 2023, of which 1,831 were the NDM variety. The overall rate of carbapenem-resistant infections rose from just under 2 per 100,000 people in 2019 to more than 3 per 100,000 in 2023, a 69 percent increase. NDM cases climbed from about 0.25 per 100,000 to roughly 1.35 per 100,000, an increase of about 460 percent, the authors said. The report did not provide information on deaths associated with the infections.

Bacteria with the NDM gene, which confers resistance to many antibiotics, were once considered exotic and mainly linked to patients who received medical care overseas. Only two antibiotics reliably work against infections caused by these...