Resisting Medicines

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria have become an important health concern, associated with an increasing number of illnesses and deaths. A recent study considered data from 10 city hospitals in the US and found that during a 10-year period, the number of patients with a specific strain of Escherichia coli (pictured) that is resistant to fluoroquinolone (the antibiotic normally used for E. coli infection) had increased by nearly 8%. Additionally, in some cities, resistance to fluoroquinolone had increased by more than 20% in patients with additional factors such as having been admitted to hospital recently. This kind of resistance can cause complications when treating severe kidney infections like pyelonephritis, where ineffective antibiotic treatment can have fatal consequences. Increased efforts to identify and control antibiotic resistance are crucial, and further investment into finding alternative antibiotics is needed.

Written by Katie Panteli

Katie Panteli

Writer

Katie, a Warwick Biomed graduate, works for a science-publishing house in London with some of the world's most respected scientific minds. She's most interested in human biology, anything and everything that makes us tick.

• Image by James Archer, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
• David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
• Image copyright held by the photographer
• Research published in Emerging Infectious Diseases, September 2016