Drug Resistant Superbugs Kill Every 15 Minutes

Every 15 minutes, someone in the United States dies of a superbug that has learned to outsmart even our most sophisticated antibiotics, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That's about 35,000 deaths each year from drug-resistant infections, according to the landmark report.

The report places five drug-resistant superbugs on the CDC's "urgent threat" list -- two more germs than were on the CDC's list in 2013, the last time the agency issued a report on antibiotic resistance.

Genetic research shows germs have become especially adept at teaching each other how to outwit antibiotics.

"Some miracle drugs no longer perform miracles," according to the report.

The report also notes that while superbug infections in hospitals are down, some infections caught elsewhere -- anywhere in the community -- have increased.

"This is a problem that ultimately affects all of us," said Michael Craig, a CDC senior adviser on antibiotic resistance. "It literally has the potential to affect every person on the planet."

Anyone can catch a superbug anywhere

While superbugs typically attack frail, elderly people, anyone can contract a superbug.

Peggy Lillis was a healthy, vibrant 56-year-old teacher in Brooklyn, who woke up one morning 10 years ago with severe diarrhea.

"Being a kindergarten teacher, she just assumed that she caught something from one of the kids or maybe she had food poisoning. She did not think it was a serious threat. None of us did," remembers her son, Christian Lillis.

Five days later, Peggy was so sick she could barely move.

Doctors immediately admitted Peggy to the intensive care unit. She had Clostridioides difficile, or C. diff, one of the urgent threats on the CDC's list.

Peggy kidneys were starting to fail, and she was going into septic shock.

The hospital gave Peggy an antibiotic called vancomycin, both intravenously and by enema. But she died the next day -- less than a week after becoming ill.

"The doctors at the hospital where she was treated -- they did everything they could for her," Christian said. "But bacteria are evolving at a rate that we are not keeping up with."

Christian says they'll never know exactly where or when his mother picked up the C. diff bacteria.

According to the CDC, a C. diff infection is usually a side effect of taking antibiotics, which along with killing bad bacteria, can also kill the good bacteria that help fight infections. People taking antibiotics are 7 to 10 times more likely to get C. diff while on the drugs and during the month after.

Two days before she became ill, Peggy's dentist had prescribed an antibiotic called clindamycin to prevent infection following a root canal.

Peggy's autopsy lists her cause of death as illnesses "as a consequence of antibiotic therapy for a dental procedure."

Now her family questions whether that preventive antibiotic was necessary.

Christian and his brother, Liam Lillis, hope to educate others about C. diff through the Peggy Lillis Foundation.

"My mother was probably the best person I've ever known in my life," Christian said. "What we will not accept is that our mother's death is going to be in vain."

Article by CNN
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