Scientific American: CDC Report Finds 35,000 Americans Die of Antibiotic-Resistant Infections Each Year

The CDC has estimated that every fifteen minutes, an American dies of an antibiotic resistant infection. Looking back at reports and estimates from 2013, the CDC estimated that the deaths related to drug-resistant antibiotics were 23,000, however, in reality, 44,000 deaths occurred due to this cause. Since 2013, there has been an 18% decrease in mortality, but the number of drug-resistant infections has risen by 200,000. Dr. Cornelius Clancy, director of the Extreme Drug Resistance Pathogen Laboratory in the University of Pittsburgh division of infection diseases, emphasizes that these untreatable or difficult to treat infections need to be considered now and not thought of as a future problem. Society needs to invest in prevention and control of the spread of these infections, while also supporting research of new treatments.

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