Liu F, Liu TT, Sun M, et al. Infect Drug Resist. 2021;14:859–867.

We, the Editor and Publisher of Infection and Drug Resistance, have retracted the published article.

Following publication, concerns were raised by a third-party regarding the potential reuse of Figures 2G, 3E, 5F, and 5G across unrelated articles by different author groups. Further investigation by the publisher and journal has confirmed the integrity concerns of these images. When approached for an explanation, the authors did not respond to our queries. As verifying the validity of published work is core to the integrity of the scholarly record, we are therefore, retracting the article. The corresponding author listed in this publication has been informed.

We have been informed in our decision-making by our editorial policies and the COPE guidelines. The retracted articles will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but they will be digitally watermarked on each page as ‘Retracted’.