The impact of antimicrobial-resistant, health care-associated infections on mortality in the United States.

We used data reported from US hospitals to the National Nosocomial Infection Surveillance System of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for 3 specific infections: Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infections, Pseudomonas aeruginosa pneumonias, and Escherichia coli urinary tract infections. We evaluated the proportion of infections with antimicrobial-resistant isolates and the relative risk of death associated with the resistant pathogen in the period 2000-2004, compared with the period 1990-1994. The proportion of antimicrobial-resistant infections increased, but there was no change in the relative risk of death between the 2 periods.