Stopping the Drug Resistance Health Threat

Resistance to antimicrobial drugs has become a health threat of epidemic proportions worldwide. The long list of drug-resistant bacteria continues to expand at an accelerated rate, highlighted yet again by the recent Commission published in The Lancet. Author Ramanan Laxminarayan, from the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy, and colleagues wrote:

“Antibiotic resistance is a nuanced and multisectoral problem that threatens to erase decades of progress in medicine, food security, and public health. Like climate change, the issue of antimicrobial resistance is worldwide, and connects priorities across the globe regardless of a country’s level of development.”

Of significant concern is that antibiotic resistance is most challenging for our most vulnerable—children and older adults and the residents of heavily populated urban areas.

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