According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, two million people become infected with antibiotic resistant bacteria each year, leading to at least 23,000 deaths. And these infections cost a lot—US$20billion in extra health care costs each year. To combat the problem, the White House is requesting $1.2 billion in the 2016 budget for diagnostics, new antibiotics, outbreak surveillance – and stewardship, which is how antibiotics are prescribed and used.
One of the reasons that antibiotic-resistant bacteria have become such a problem is because we take so many antibiotics. Per capita consumption of antibiotics in the United States is among the highest in the world. In 2010, 258 million antibiotic prescriptions were written nationally, almost one per person (0.83 prescriptions per person).
