Recent Outbreak Stresses Need for New Antibiotics

On August 22, researchers at the National Institutes of Health released a scientific paper detailing the use of advanced genetic technology to trace a deadly infection, untreatable by nearly every antibiotic, that spread through the NIH’s Clinical Center last year.  The superbug eventually infected 17 patients. Eleven died, six from bloodstream superbug infections.

Nicole Mahoney, Senior Officer of the Antibiotics and Innovation Project at the Pew Health Group, says this case illustrates the need for the development of new antibiotics to treat life-threatening illnesses.