Exposure to antibiotics in hospitals boosts superbugs in nursing homes

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2022-02-02 03:00

International

The_Holly_House_Carehome_in_Enfield,_London By Saragil500 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

US researchers say being exposed to antibiotics during a stay in hospital is increasing the burden of multidrug-resistant bacteria (superbugs) in nursing homes. The team looked at records for 642 nursing home residents, and found recent exposure to antibiotics in hospital was linked to an increase in superbug infections and contamination of residents' rooms with superbugs. Risk of infection or colonisation among nursing home residents was highest after exposure to some of the last resort antibiotics used to treat Clostridium difficile, the authors say. They suggest the use of high-risk antibiotics should be minimised to protect our treatments and lessen the burden on nursing homes.

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Journal/
conference: JAMA Network Open

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University of Michigan Medical School, USA

Funder: This work was supported by grants RO1 AG041780 and K24 AG050685 from the National Institutes of Health and grant TL1TR002242 from the Michigan Institute for Clinical & Translational Research to Dr Gontjes.

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