superbugs

Antimicrobial resistance is rising fast. If antibiotics universally failed, common infections would kill again, surgery and chemotherapy would become extraordinarily risky, and life expectancy would drop by years. The world would resemble the medical landscape of 1925.

Bacteria are evolving faster than we can fight them. No major new antibiotic class has been discovered since 1987, 700,000 people die from drug-resistant infections every year, and the clock is ticking. Here is the science behind antimicrobial resistance — and what might save us.