Long-Term Care Survey Alert

Superbugs are such a hot topic this summer that everyone from TED Talk speakers to President Barack Obama is weighing in with advice about how to strike back at so-called superbugs. In addition, a related article recently ran in the major medical journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

Background: In June, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that its fiscal year 2016 budget calls for “critical increased investment” in programs to combat antibiotic resistant bacteria. That increase is in keeping with the White House promise this spring to launch a 5-year plan to combat antimicrobial resistance. As part of that plan, the White House has called for related spending to nearly double, to $1.2 billion.

In a June 2015 TED Talk, author and journalist Maryn McKenna warned of the advent of a frightening “post-antibiotic era.” By 2050, she projects, deaths related to antibiotic-resistant bugs could surpass deaths from cancer — rising to an estimated 10 million people each year.

Currently, about 2 million people in the United States suffer infections from drug-resistant bacteria annually, leading to approximately 23,000 deaths.