Drug-resistant Infections Linked to High Mortality, Greater Costs for Patients

New Delhi: A study of infections caused by drug-resistant bacteria, which examined more than 1.5 lakh patients admitted in 20 tertiary hospitals across India, has found that mortality rates and the cost of treatment are both significantly higher in cases of drug-resistance.

The study was based on Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) data and related to hospital data and clinical experiences over the three years from 2022 and 2025.

It has found that such infections are associated with a high mortality rate of roughly half the patients perishing in the most severe cases where the infection reaches the bloodstream and cannot be killed by available therapies. Meanwhile, the cost of therapy is also much higher, increasing with patient status and severity of infection. In some cases, the cost for patients could double or more for resistant bacterial infections.

The multicentric surveillance study was published in July in the Lancet Regional Health—Southeast Asia journal.

The study, titled 'Mortality and cost of therapy of carbapenem susceptible vs resistant Gram-negative infections among hospitalised patients in India: a multicentric surveillance (2022–2025)', has examined key causes of resistant infections over 27,283 patients.

It included patients with confirmed infections caused by bacteria. It also examined secondary outcomes such as the length of hospital admission, cost of therapy and treatments taken.

The study found that India has among the highest prevalence – over 61% – of infections that are carbapenem resistant (CR) among those with drug resistant infections. CR is a severe form of infection where advanced anti-microbial drugs fail to work. Such infections are associated with a high mortality rate.

“Antimicrobial resistance is no longer a distant threat—it is already costing Indian lives,” ICMR senior scientist Dr Kamini Walia told the Times of India. Walia is one of the authors of the study. She pointed out that more powerful drugs are not the answer; prevention and timely diagnosis as well as responsible antibiotic use are the way out of the crisis, she said.

The other authors include Nitin Bansal, Sonam Vijay, V. Ramasubramanian, Camilla Rodrigues, Prabhat Kumar, Bhawna Yadav and V.C. Ohri, all of whom are medical professionals working in different institutes as well as hospitals.

The ICMR study cites a 2019 figure on drug resistance in which six pathogens were found to be responsible for over 2.5 million deaths worldwide, of the total 4.5 million drug-resistant bacteria-linked deaths that year. Many of these pathogens were not just multidrug resistant but also caused severe infections leading the World Health Organisation to designat them “priority pathogens”.

Out of the 1.5 lakh patients whose data was analysed for the current study, the average patient age was 51.2 years, of whom 67.8% were male and 32.2% were female.

The study highlighted a need for coordination from policymakers, hospital administrations and clinicals for a better access to therapies and strengthening infection prevention programmes to lower mortality rates.