2 Million Americans Ill due to Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Each Year

Federal health officials reported as of Monday that at least two million Americans fall ill due to antibiotic-resistant bacteria every year, and at least 23,000 die from related infections. These new findings could show a potential growing public health threat regarding the issue.

Though the number of deaths is substantially lower than previous estimates, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, doctors have long been warned regarding antibiotic resistance and how bacteria can develop defenses against seemingly ordinary infections.

"They have come up with hard numbers where it has been only guesswork," said Dr. Stuart B. Levy, a professor of microbiology at Tufts University and the president of the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics, via The New York Times. "This sets a baseline we can all believe in."

As the discovery of penicillin helped revolutionize medicine as we know it back in 1928, resistance to antibiotics increases with each use of the drugs, as patients may develop an immunity to the products.

Various researchers believe that antibiotics used to speed up farm animal growth or prevent disease among livestong could be a reason to blame regarding ideal conditions for microbes to resistant development. In fact, statistics show that at least 70 percent of all antibiotics in the United States are used for such activity.

"Widespread use of antibiotics in agriculture has resulted in increased resistance in infections in humans," CDC Director Thomas Frieden said, via The San Francisco Chronicle.

While this link has been long-disputed by both pharmacies and livestock industries, health officials are hoping to phase out antibiotics for such use.  

Yet the Animal Health Institute, a lobbying group that represents various pharmaceutical companies notes that only two of the 18 specific antibiotic-resistant threats discussed via the report show a connection to antibiotic use in food animals.

The report also writes that patients who insist on antibiotic treatment may be particularly tricky to treat as many health officials find it unnecessary in humans.

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More information regarding the report can be found here.