The Burden of Antimicrobial Resistant Bacteremia in Ontario: A Population-wide Analysis of Attributable Mortality from 110 Pathogen-Antibiotic Combinations

A study in Ontario, Canada, examined the association between antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and mortality in cultured bacterial bloodstream pathogens. The study identified 83,962 bacteremia episodes and 110 eligible pathogen-antibiotic combinations, with 17.1% 30-day mortality. Unadjusted associations between resistance and 30-day mortality were larger than adjusted ones, especially for antibiotics commonly used for empiric treatment. The study concluded that AMR was associated with a 10% relative increase in mortality risk among patients with bacteremia and 1.2 AMR attributable deaths per 100,000 population per year.