2020 saw a 15% increase in hospital infections and deaths.
Antimicrobial resistance happens when germs like bacteria and fungi gain the power to fight off the drugs that were designed to kill them. The misuse of antibiotics was a big reason — unfinished or unnecessary prescriptions that didn’t kill the germs made them stronger.
The CDC doesn’t have 2020 data on all superbugs, partly because health officials had to focus on COVID-19. But it does have data from seven kinds of bacterial and fungal infections that were detected in hospital patients, including MRSA and a bug called CRE that’s known as “the nightmare bacteria.”One possible reason: From March to October 2020, almost 80% of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 received an antibiotic, CDC officials said.