Antibiotic Resistance: A Serious National and Global Health Problem

The discovery of antibiotics in the early 20th century fundamentally transformed human and veterinary medicine. Antibiotics now save millions of lives each year in the United States and around the world. However, the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains represents a serious threat to public health and the economy. The CDC estimates that annually at least two million illnesses and 23,000 deaths are caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the United States alone.¹

As more strains of bacteria become resistant to an ever-larger number of antibiotics, our drug choices will become increasingly limited and expensive and, in some cases, non-existent. If this trend continues unchecked, a wide range of modern medical procedures, from basic dental care to organ transplants, likely would be accompanied by a much greater risk of developing a difficult-to-treat or untreatable antibiotic infection. The safety of many modern medical procedures is dependent on the ability to treat bacterial infections that can arise as post-treatment complications.²

“Every day we don’t act to better protect antibiotics, we will make it harder and more expensive to address drug resistance in the future. Drug resistance can undermine both our ability to fight infectious diseases and much of modern medicine.”
– Dr. Tom Frieden, MD, MPH, Director U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
2. White House National Strategy for Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria