CDC Publishes First-Ever Report on State of Drug Resistance

The Centers for Disease Control has ranked threats posed by distinct micro-organisms as urgent, serious and concerning in its first-ever report on the state of antibiotic resistance and the burden of antibiotic resistance on public health.

The report, "Antibiotic Resistance Threats in the United States, 2013," also contains statistics on prevalence of drug resistant infection; of the two million antibiotic resistant infections in the United States each year, 23,000 become fatal.

According to the CDC, overuse of antibiotics is the most important factor in perpetuating antibiotic resistance. Currently, some 50 percent of antibiotic use is unnecessary or inappropriate.

The report is available on the CDC's website. 

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