The CDC estimates that 23,000 people die each year due to infections from antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the US. Arias et al. (2015)
Acinetobacter: gram-negative bacterium that causes pneumonia or bloodstream infection is responsible for 500 deaths per year
11,285 deaths per year in US have been attributed to MRSA alone.
250,000 people died from drug- resistant tuberculosis (TB) infections in 2015 world wide. (WHO 2015)
ANTIBIOTICS ARE OVERUSED
The more we rely on antibiotics to accomplish their jobs of killing bacteria and keeping us safe, the more we open the door for the bacteria to build resistance.
Bacteria have been able to evolve resistance to all antibiotics in clinical practice. Payne (2007)
154 million prescriptions for antibiotic are written each year and according to research by the CDC, 30% of those prescriptions are unnecessary. (2016)
TEIXOBACTIN MIGHT JUST BE THE ANSWER
Research done could not produce antibiotic resistant Staph and TB infections to teixobactin (Nature, A new antibiotic kills bacteria w/o detectable resistance 2015)
Since teixobactin bings to multiple enzyme substrates for bacterial cell walls, it will be more difficult for bacteria to develop resistance.
New class of antibiotics: lipid II binding antibiotics