MPH faculty member William Schaffner on the latest superbug and antibiotic resistance
The first U.S. case of a bacterial infection that can’t be treated by last-resort antibiotics has been reported in a 49-year-old Pennsylvania woman. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are difficult to treat and have become a grave — and growing — concern. The CDC estimates that at least two million people are infected with such bacteria each year, and 23,000 die.
To better understand what this means, WebMD spoke with infectious diseases specialist William Schaffner, M.D., medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and a professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, TN.