Link: MSNBC.com.
Researchers at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School studied the prevalence of bacteria resistant to three or more drugs over a six-year period. From 1998 to 2003, there was a significant increase in the incidence of patients carrying multidrug resistant (MDR) bacteria when they were admitted. Tree of the four species of MDR bacteria that the researchers examined, including E. coli, saw rising numbers of cases.
"We need to learn more about ways to prevent the spread of multidrug resistance," said Aurora Pop-Vicas, lead author of the second study. "What everybody wants to avoid is having an infection with an MDR bacteria resistant to all the antibiotics currently available."
Both studies were announced Monday. They mirror findings released in April by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which found 17 percent of drug-resistant staph infections in three regions were caught outside hospitals.
