Growing resistance to these drugs increases the risks to patients
Sepsis, the body’s extreme and often deadly response to an infection, is a leading cause of death in hospitals, killing nearly 270,000 adults in the U.S. each year, and antibiotics play an essential role in preventing and treating the infections that cause this dangerous medical emergency. Growing resistance to these lifesaving drugs, however, threatens health care providers’ ability to treat sepsis and save lives.
Bacteria, such as those that can lead to sepsis, are constantly evolving to beat the drugs used to fight them. As bacteria mutate, some develop the ability to evade antibiotics and spread such resistance. Yet, as these multi-drug-resistant “superbugs” become more prevalent, and increasingly difficult—sometimes impossible—to treat, there are dangerously few new antibiotics in development with the potential to defeat them.
Pew, by: David Hyun, M.D.