Click on image for full-size view. (The Lancet, Statista)
10 Nov. 2018. We’ve reported at Science & Enterprise on the problem of antibiotic resistance for several years. Bacteria and viruses evolve into new strains resistant to current antibiotics, also known as “superbugs,” causing health authorities and drug developers to scramble for stronger or alternative options. In some cases, authorities are concerned the development of new antibiotics can’t keep up with new superbug strains, with ominous implications for public health.
Our friends at Statista posted a chart this week that underscores this problem, showing the median number of deaths by country in Europe from microbes resistant to antibiotics, this weekend’s infographic. The data from 2015 first appeared in a paper earlier this month in the medical journal The Lancet, showing some 33,000 died from antibiotic-resistant infections that year. About one-third of those deaths, nearly 11,000, occurred in Italy, with another 5,500 in France.
Researchers on both sides of the Atlantic seem to be taking this threat seriously, and we’ve reported in Science & Enterprise on advances in academic and industry labs to develop new or more powerful diagnostics and antibiotics. A few of the most recent stories are listed below.
More from Science & Enterprise:
- New Processes Devised to Boost Antibiotics
- Rapid Antimicrobial Resistance Diagnostics System Advances
- Genome Editing, Informatics Lead to New Antibiotic
- Novartis, NGO Partner on Generic Antibiotics
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