Objective Lens

Currently, at least 2.8 million infections and over 700,000 deaths are reported from AMR bacterial infections globally (1,2). If no new antibiotics are isolated and made available by 2050, the CDC estimates that 10 million annual deaths will occur globally as a result of this inaction (5,8). Yet, surprisingly few have even heard of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, or understand the implications for global health. In fact, no new classes of antibiotics have been developed to treat microbial infections in well over 30 years, as pharmaceutical companies have instead pursued research and development of more lucrative drugs for non-infectious diseases. Since this trend is likely to continue into the foreseeable future, this crisis must be addressed using alternative creative approaches. Unfortunately, this problem is exacerbated poor antibiotic stewardship practices by healthcare providers and consumers for decades. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacterial and fungal pathogens to be one of the principal threats to global public health (5,7-9).