Mumbai: Drug-resistant bacterial infections are related to considerably increased mortality and remedy prices than infections attributable to drug-sensitive strains, a brand new Indian Council of Medical Analysis (ICMR) examine involving 20 tertiary-care hospitals has discovered.Revealed in The Lancet Regional Well being–Southeast Asia, the examine analysed 1.6 lakh hospitalised sufferers between April 2022 and April 2025, together with sufferers at Hinduja Hospital in Mahim. Of those, 26,213 had infections attributable to 4 main Gram-negative micro organism—E coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.A worrying 61.1% of those infections had been carbapenem-resistant. Carbapenems had been, till just a few years in the past, thought of last-resort antibiotics for among the most severe infections however are getting used extra continuously lately.“Antimicrobial resistance is not a distant menace—it’s already costing Indian lives,” mentioned senior scientist from ICMR, Dr Kamini Walia, an creator of the examine. “Our examine exhibits that carbapenem-resistant infections carry considerably increased mortality and remedy prices,” she mentioned, including that the reply just isn’t merely extra highly effective antibiotics, however “higher an infection prevention, well timed diagnostics and accountable antibiotic use”.The examine in contrast mortality amongst sufferers with resistant and vulnerable types of the identical micro organism. Mortality was 31.2% amongst these with resistant Okay pneumoniae, in contrast with 23.5% amongst these with vulnerable infections. The corresponding figures had been 24.4% versus 17.3% for E coli; 37.9% versus 32.8% for A baumannii; and 28.9% versus 20.2% for P aeruginosa.Therapy was additionally dearer for resistant infections. “Antibiotic remedy prices had been 1.1–2 folds increased for resistant infections,” mentioned the examine. The common value for resistant E coli was $420 per affected person, in contrast with $211 for vulnerable infections. For Okay pneumoniae, the prices had been $587 and $505; for A baumannii, $655 and $436; and for P aeruginosa, $702 and $510.Resistant infections had been additionally related to longer hospital stays. Sufferers with resistant E coli, as an illustration, stayed a median 23.1 days, in contrast with 17.8 days for these with vulnerable infections.Dr Rahul Pandit, vital care specialist at H N Reliance Hospital in Girgaum, mentioned Mumbai hospitals had been seeing an rising variety of sufferers with carbapenem-resistant infections.“It takes longer to deal with a affected person with a drug-resistant an infection. Growing a tradition, figuring out the organism and figuring out its resistance sample can take just a few days, though molecular diagnostics may also help us do that sooner,” mentioned Pandit, who was not related to the examine.Sufferers with drug-resistant infections might also require combos of antibiotics, he mentioned, thereby rising the price of remedy. With home-care companies more and more accessible, some sufferers who don’t require extended hospitalisation can obtain injectable antibiotics at house below nursing supervision, he added.The researchers, nevertheless, cautioned that the examine was performed in tertiary hospitals, the place critically sick and referred sufferers usually tend to be handled, and due to this fact the findings shouldn’t be interpreted as indicators of particular person hospital efficiency.The findings underline the necessity for stronger antimicrobial-resistance surveillance, infection-control measures, antimicrobial stewardship and well timed entry to efficient medicine, they added.
