Doctors in the U.S. are dealing with a growing number of children infected by bacteria that most antibiotics can no longer treat.
A fresh analysis by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) researchers, published in the Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, showed the problem has picked up speed over the last few years.
The team looked at samples of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (CRE) from patients aged 18 and below. These had been sent to the CDC’s Antimicrobial Resistance Laboratory Network between 2019 and 2024.
CRE is a group of bacteria that reportedly resists carbapenems, antibiotics that doctors usually save for serious infections when other drugs have failed.
In all, there were 1,845 cases among 1,753 children. Their median age was five, and 58 percent were girls.
What The Numbers Said About Drug-Resistant Superbugs
Across the country, CRE infections in children went up 51 percent over the period. Roughly one in four cases involved bacteria that produce carbapenemase, an enzyme that destroys the drugs. Those cases rose by 92 percent.
Most of that jump reportedly came from bacteria carrying a gene called NDM, short for New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase. Infections linked to it went up four times over.
Why Sick Children Were Hit The Hardest
The researchers also went through the medical charts of 124 children with these infections. Only 14 percent had no healthcare-related risk factor.
Among the others, 75 percent already had a medical condition, such as heart disease, cancer or a neurocognitive disorder. Many had spent time in an intensive care unit, and some had received treatment outside the U.S.
So these infections were mostly found in children who were already unwell and spent a lot of time in hospital.
Few Drugs To Fall Back On
NDM-producing bacteria are among the hardest to treat. Newer antibiotics have given doctors more choices for adult patients, but for children the picture is different.
Approval and safety data for younger age groups are reportedly thin and in some cases, do not exist. The authors said CP-CRE, and NDM-CRE in particular, is “a growing issue in U.S. pediatric healthcare settings.”
One caveat was that the figures came from samples sent to a CDC lab network. They showed a trend, but they were not a tally of every infection in the country.
Hospitals treating medically complex children would have to watch for these infections more closely, and drug makers will be under pressure to test newer antibiotics in paediatric patients.
Parents of children with long-term conditions must ask hospitals about screening and infection-control steps they follow.
