CDC sleuthing helps decipher drug-resistant infection rise

Previous research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that a dangerous variety of bacteria that cause drug-resistant infections, called NDM-producing carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (NDM-CRE), has become much more common in the United States, increasing by 461% from 2019–2023. Now, in a new study presented at ASM Microbe 2026, researchers set out to better understand what was behind this sudden increase, examining if it was driven by closely related strains or, instead, by many different, unrelated bacteria.