The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has drawn up a new most-wanted list of superbugs, and four pathogens made the top tier: a fast-spreading fungus and three bacteria strains that doctors say are growing harder to treat with the drugs currently available. Germs resistant to the strongest antibiotics are now blamed for more than 50,000 deaths in the United States each year, according to the CDC report.
Four Pathogens Top the List
The CDC's Antimicrobial Resistance Threats Report sorts 19 bacterial and fungal pathogens into three tiers — urgent, serious and concerning — according to the CDC. As reported by The Buffalo News, the agency classified four drug-resistant germs as urgent threats, 13 as serious and two as concerning. Those four urgent-threat pathogens are Candida auris, carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter, carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales and drug-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae, according to CIDRAP, which reported the breakdown as four urgent threats, 13 serious threats and two concerning threats.
Overuse or misuse of antibiotics is a major driver behind the rise of drug-resistant germs, since microorganisms can mutate to become less sensitive or outright immune to treatments after improper medication use. Dr. Wendy S. Armstrong put it bluntly in an IDSA statement: “Drug-resistant infections prolong hospital stays, drive up healthcare costs, and make it increasingly difficult — and sometimes impossible — for doctors to safely provide care.”
A Fungus That Spreads in Hospitals
Candida auris is a fungus that grows as a budding yeast and spreads mostly in healthcare settings through direct contact with infected people or contaminated surfaces. It can cause illness ranging from mild skin infections to life-threatening sepsis, and it poses an elevated risk to people with weakened immune systems. Reported cases have climbed every year since 2019, with the largest single-year jump — 53.7% — occurring between 2022 and 2023.
The numbers behind that climb are stark: reported U.S. cases rose from 48 in 2016, when the fungus was first reported, to 4,523 in 2023, per the same MedPage Today account. The CDC's own tracking page shows 6,304 clinical cases reported in 2024, noting that cases continue to rise each year but that the rate of increase has slowed since 2022. Tom Chiller told CIDRAP that Candida auris infections are fatal in 29% to 62% of patients.
Carbapenem-Resistant Bacteria on the Rise
Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales is a class of bacteria resistant to carbapenems, among the strongest antibiotics available, and it spreads through contaminated hands, wounds, feces, and medical equipment and devices. The CDC reported a sharp rise in carbapenem-resistant infections, and CDC researchers found that CRE incidence at U.S. hospitals increased 18% from 2019 to 2023, the same CIDRAP report notes. A related strain, New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase-producing CRE, saw its incidence increase 460% over that same stretch, according to Infectious Disease Advisor.
Acinetobacter, the other urgent bacterial threat, is a bacterium commonly found in the environment and on surfaces, but it's mostly found causing trouble in healthcare settings such as hospitals and nursing homes. It can cause infections in the lungs, wounds, urinary tract and blood — making it a particular danger for already-hospitalized patients with open wounds or medical devices.
Gonorrhea's Drug-Resistant Turn
Drug-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae causes the sexually transmitted infection gonorrhea, and when left untreated, the infection can cause pelvic inflammatory disease, a life-threatening ectopic pregnancy and infertility. Resistance trends in Neisseria meningitidis, the bacterium that causes meningococcal disease, are also moving in the wrong direction: estimated ciprofloxacin-resistant cases more than doubled between 2019 and 2023, while penicillin-resistant cases tripled, Infectious Disease Advisor reported.
Not All the Trends Are Grim
Not every pathogen in the report is trending upward. U.S. hospital infections from C. difficile declined 9% from 2018 to 2023, even though the bacterium still killed more than 11,000 hospital patients in 2023, per CIDRAP's reporting. The report's broader figures are striking on their own: the agency's 2026 report puts the annual U.S. toll at an estimated 9.7 million infections and 50,800 deaths, according to Infectious Disease Advisor, while a separate CDC web page describes more than 9.3 million drug-resistant infections occurring in the United States each year. The 9.7 million figure includes C. difficile infections.
Those infection and death totals also mark a steep rise from the CDC's previous report: the earlier estimate was 2.8 million annual infections, and deaths were estimated at 35,000, per CIDRAP. But CDC officials have cautioned that the 2026 report's findings are based on data collected in 2023, and that changes in data sources and methodology mean the new figures should not be directly compared with the 2019 report's numbers.
