Health officials say that "nightmare bacteria" with unusual resistance to antibiotics of last resort were found more than 200 times in the United States last year, a sign that these rare cases are growing as a public health threat.
The numbers come from a first-of-a-kind hunt by the nation’s public health labs last year, and the true number is probably higher.
The problem mostly strikes people in hospitals and nursing homes who need IVs and other tubes that can get infected. Some patients had traveled for surgery or other health care to another country where drug-resistant germs are more common.
The situation was described in a report published Tuesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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