The CDC's 2026 Antimicrobial Resistance Threats Report estimates 9.7 million drug-resistant infections and 50,800 deaths a year in the US, including Clostridioides difficile, with four pathogens ranked as urgent threats.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 2026 Antimicrobial Resistance Threats Report, published on 27 October using 2023 data, estimates that drug-resistant infections cause about 9.7 million infections and 50,800 deaths in the United States each year. It is the agency's first such report since 2019.
The headline totals need their definition attached. The CDC's own summary puts the figures excluding Clostridioides difficile at more than 9.3 million infections and more than 39,000 deaths; the 9.7 million and 50,800 totals include C. difficile, which is not typically drug-resistant but is included because antibiotic use and the spread of germs drive both problems. The report tracks 19 bacterial and fungal threats: four urgent, thirteen serious and two concerning, plus a watch list of six more pathogens being monitored.
The four urgent threats, the category requiring urgent and aggressive action, are Candida auris, carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter, carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales and drug-resistant gonorrhea. Candida auris, a fungus that spreads in hospitals and nursing homes and resists most antifungal drugs, rose from 48 reported cases in 2016 to 6,304 in 2024. Germs picked up in hospitals and other medical settings cause more than 42,000 deaths a year and add nearly $12 billion in healthcare costs, according to the report.
The CDC's distinction between the totals with and without C. difficile is the key check on this story, and it is stated on the agency's own summary page, while the threat categories and the healthcare cost figures are consistent across the CDC summary and independent coverage of the report. CDC Director Dr. Erica Schwartz said antimicrobial resistance threatens modern medicine and puts millions of Americans at risk every year.
There is movement in both directions. C. difficile was downgraded from urgent to serious after infection rates fell, which the CDC attributes to better diagnosis and infection prevention in hospitals, while drug-resistant Neisseria meningitidis was added as a serious threat. The agency cautions against comparing the new totals directly with its 2019 report, which estimated 2.8 million infections and 35,000 deaths, because data sources and methods changed, including counting cases that were previously excluded.
The practical warning in the report is about routine care. When antibiotics stop working, the CDC and infectious disease physicians say, procedures that depend on them, from chemotherapy and organ transplants to joint replacements, become riskier, and the agency's prescription is unglamorous: use antibiotics only when truly needed, prevent infections in hospitals, and keep developing new drugs before the remaining treatments fail.