Antimicrobial Resistance: Learning from the current global health crisis to prevent another one
The world was blindsided by COVID-19, but a new study finds that even as we continue to wrestle with the pandemic, another threat looms that scientists have long known about but the nation has thus far failed to address: the growth of antibiotic-resistant infections. Market dysfunction and perverse Medicare reimbursement rates have led to a growth in infections that resist antibiotics. In the U.S., around two million people per year contract infections that are resistant to antibiotics and as many as 23,000 of them die. These drug-resistant infections account for $20 billion in health care costs. If unchecked, it’s forecast that the problem could claim 10 million lives per year worldwide and be responsible for the loss of $100 trillion […]