CINCINNATI (WKRC) – Infectious disease specialists are raising alarms over a significant increase in drug-resistant infections, which are proving difficult to treat with traditional methods.
According to Dr. Stephen Blatt, medical director of infectious diseases at TriHealth, these infections are caused by bacteria that have evolved to carry a gene capable of destroying advanced antibiotics known as carbapenems. “They carry a gene that destroys our most advanced types of antibiotics called carbapenems,” Dr. Blatt said.
Previously a risk primarily in hospitals, these infections are now appearing in the community. Dr. Blatt explained, “Those people come to their outpatient family doctor with something like a urinary tract infection and we don’t have any antibiotics to treat them that come in a pill form; they have to be given IVs.”…