Across England, the number of bloodstream infections caused by a bacteria called ‘Esherichia coli’ (E. coli) have been rising strongly for the last few years. However, the reasons behind these increases are not well understood at the moment. We plan to use the extra information in the IORD database to look at some different reasons why these increases might be occurring. We will look at whether the increases are happening more in hospital, outside of hospital or in patients who have been recently discharged. We will see whether the infections being reported are making patients less severely ill, to find out whether changes could just be down to how doctors are making decisions about who to test. We will also explore whether the aging population explains most of the increase, or whether it could be due to changes in the kinds of bacteria causing the bloodstream infections, particularly how resistant they are to different antibiotics. We will also particularly look at whether there is any evidence that infections of the bladder could be leading to more germs passing over into the blood.
See also blog article: Study looks at why co-amoxiclav-resistant E coli infections are on the rise