US study suggests COVID-19 pandemic may be accelerating antimicrobial resistance

Among those hospitalised during the pandemic, both COVID-19 patients and those tested for SARS-COV-2 but negative, had higher rates of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections compared to patients hospitalised before the pandemic, according to a study evaluating the pandemic’s impact on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in 271 hospitals across the USA, to be presented at this year’s European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Lisbon, Portugal (23-26 April).