Antibiotic-Resistant Infection Treatment Costs Have Doubled Since 2002, Now Exceeding $2 Billion Annually

Abstract

Antibiotic-resistant infections are a global health care concern. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 23,000 Americans with these infections die each year. Rising infection rates add to the costs of health care and compromise the quality of medical and surgical procedures provided. Little is known about the national health care costs attributable to treating the infections. Using data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, we estimated the incremental health care costs of treating a resistant infection as well as the total national costs of treating such infections. To our knowledge, this is the first national estimate of the costs for treating the infections. We found that antibiotic resistance added $1,383 to the cost of treating a patient with a bacterial infection. Using our estimate of the number of such infections in 2014, this amounts to a national cost of $2.2 billion annually. The need for innovative new infection prevention programs, antibiotics, and vaccines to prevent and treat antibiotic-resistant infections is an international priority.

The incremental cost of infections associated with multidrug‐resistant organisms in the inpatient hospital setting—A national estimate

“…Our analysis of Burnham and colleagues' recent study shows that “V09.x” ICD‐9‐CM codes had a (weighted) sensitivity of 11.9 percent vs the gold standard of laboratory cultures in accurately identifying patients with MDROs during hospitalization . Similarly, a nationally representative study by Thorpe and colleagues of patients with MDROs identified 12 percent of such MDRO patients via ICD‐9‐CM codes and the other 88 percent of MDRO patients via evidence of antibiotic drug treatment failure . These numbers are close to what we would expect if the numbers of undiagnosed cases of MDROs from Burnham and colleagues' study were generalizable to Thorpe and colleagues' nationally representative sample.…”

“…MDROs are microorganisms that are resistant to one or more antimicrobial agents and are most often resistant to all but one or two antimicrobial agents . Most recently, a Thorpe and colleagues find that the share of bacterial infections that are associated with MDROs doubled between 2002 and 2014 in the United States . The last nationally representative hospital study found that hospitalizations with diagnoses for drug resistance increased 359 percent over the period 1997‐2006 .…”

An informed public's views on reducing antibiotic overuse

“…Antibiotic use also increases the risk of other serious infections, such as Clostridium difficile, which can be life‐threatening and difficult to treat . Recent estimates suggest that treatment for antibiotic‐resistant infections costs the U.S. over $2 billion dollars annually . Overusing antibiotics also unnecessarily places patients at risk for antibiotic‐related side effects (eg, diarrhea) and allergic reactions…”

“…7 Recent estimates suggest that treatment for antibioticresistant infections costs the U.S. over $2 billion dollars annually. 8 Overusing antibiotics also unnecessarily places patients at risk for antibiotic-related side effects (eg, diarrhea) and allergic reactions. 1 Previous research has identified several factors that contribute to antibiotic overuse.…”

Біоплівки. Сучасний Стан І Перспективи Антимікробної Терапії

“…Згідно з даними GLASS (Глобальна система нагляду за стійкістю до антимікробних препаратів), опублікованими в 2017 році, щорічно антибіотикорезистентні штами зумовлюють гнійно-запальні процеси в 500 тис. осіб [3], а витрати на лікування пацієнтів у країнах ЄС сягають 7 млрд євро, у США -6,5 млрд доларів США [4][5][6]. За прогнозами аналітиків, до 2050 року смертність від інфекційних хвороб у Європі може скласти 400 тис.…”