Antibiotic resistance poses a greater threat to public health than ever before. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about two million Americans fall ill and 23,000 die from antibiotic-resistant bacteria every year, costing the US about US$20bn in direct healthcare costs.
But these figures are likely to rise dramatically in the next few years as resistance to current antibiotics spreads. Because modern healthcare practices – from chemotherapy to surgery – are only made possible by antibiotics, the future of healthcare in general will be greatly affected.
There are promises of new money from non-profit and government funders to support research into antibiotic resistance. President Obama’s recently revealed 2016 budget nearly doubles federal funding for antibiotics to $1.2bn, including $650m to extend existing National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) programmes of work.
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