While the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, another public health threat is worsening: antibiotic resistance.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) conservatively estimates that at least 2.8 million Americans acquire serious infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria or superbugs each year, with 35,000 of people dying. That equates to a death every 15 minutes. Experts are concerned that widespread use of antibiotics during the pandemic is making things worse.
COVID-19 patients who have weakened immune systems and may be on ventilators, and are therefore at risk for secondary bacterial infections, need antibiotics. But these life-saving drugs are also critical for patients fighting cancer, receiving dialysis, undergoing surgery and requiring countless other medical treatments and procedures. Indeed, antibiotics underlie many of the medical procedures and treatments we take for granted today. The paradox is that all use of antibiotics contributes to the emergence of resistance, which means that science must search for new antibiotics at the same time that medical professionals work to more effectively steward existing antibiotics.