COVID-19 pandemic may be accelerating antimicrobial resistance: new US study published
A new study by BD (Becton Dickinson) and MSD (Merck & Co.) found higher rates of antibiotic-resistant infections in both COVID-19-infected and non-infected patients admitted during the pandemic compared to the pre-pandemic data, after analyzing antimicrobial resistance cases in a total of 271 US hospitals.
The findings were presented at this year’s European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Lisbon, Portugal (23-26 April).
The study, by Dr Karri Bauer of the pharmaceutical company MSD, a trade name of Merck & Co., Inc, Kenilworth, NJ, USA and Dr Vikas Gupta, of the medical technology company Becton Dickinson (BD) and colleagues, also found that drug resistant infections were significantly higher in hospital-onset cases during the pandemic.
