A survey of European hospitals shows that several strains of deadly, drug-resistant superbugs are spreading more rapidly than medical science can cope.

The Sanger Institute said the spread of drug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae was "extremely concerning".  That bacteria usually exists in the intestines without causing problems for healthy people - but when the body is unwell, it can infect the lungs to cause pneumonia or reach the brain to cause meningitis.

When these bugs become resistant to everything else, the last line of defense are drugs called carbapenems, but now even these are becoming ineffective.  Deaths from carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae have gone up from 341 in Europe in 2007 to 2,094 by 2015.

"The infections are associated with a high mortality rate," said Dr. Sophia David of the Sanger Institute in an interview with the BBC.  "It's already worrying that we're seeing 2,000 deaths in 2015 - but the concern is that if action isn't taken, then this will continue to rise."

The study of carbapenem resistance in Klebsiella pneumoniae involved 244 hospitals involved from Ireland to Israel, making it the largest survey of its kind.

Our findings imply hospitals are the key facilitator of transmission [and suggest that] the bacteria are spreading from person-to-person primarily within hospitals," said Dr. David.  "The fact that we see the same high-risk clones in many different hospitals around Europe also shows there's something special about those strains."