35,000 Americans die from antibiotic-resistant infections every year

A new CDC report finds that an estimated 35,000 Americans die of complications from antimicrobial resistance every year — which equates to one person dying every 15 minutes. Overall, nearly 3 million people in the U.S. contract infections caused by resistant bugs each year. The level of threat posed by many microbes was downgraded, but there were some notable additions to the list, including Candida auris — the fungal infection is resistant to many of the available antifungal drugs. Still, because of active campaigns in hospitals to stem the spread of resistant bugs, there has been improvement since 2013, when the last such report was released. Back then, for instance, an estimated 44,000 people died of antibiotic-resistant infections, and the current figures represent an 18% drop.