Antibiotic-Resistant Infections Prove Deadlier and Costlier: ICMR Report
What Happened
A large ICMR study published in The Lancet Regional Health–Southeast Asia analysed 1.59 lakh hospitalised patients across 20 tertiary-care hospitals between April 2022 and April 2025. Of 26,213 patients with major Gram-negative bacterial infections, 61.1% were resistant to carbapenem antibiotics. The study found that drug-resistant infections were consistently linked to higher mortality, longer hospital stays and significantly higher treatment costs compared to drug-susceptible infections.
Key Takeaways
According to the ICMR study, carbapenem-resistant infections increased the risk of death and raised antibiotic treatment costs by 1.1 to 2 times. Researchers stressed that stronger infection prevention measures, timely diagnostics and responsible antibiotic use are critical to tackling India’s growing antimicrobial resistance burden.