Antimicrobial (Drug) Resistance

Quick Facts

• Increasing use of antimicrobials in humans, animals, and agriculture has resulted in many microbes developing resistance to these powerful drugs.
• Many infectious diseases are increasingly difficult to treat because of antimicrobial-resistant organisms, including HIV infection, staphylococcal infection, tuberculosis, influenza, gonorrhea, candida infection, and malaria.
• Between 5 and 10 percent of all hospital patients develop an infection, leading to an increase of about $5 billion in annual U.S. healthcare costs.
• About 90,000 of these patients die each year as a result of their infection, up from 13,300 patient deaths in 1992.
• People infected with antimicrobial-resistant organisms are more likely to have longer hospital stays and may require more complicated treatment.