Study: We're losing the war against drug-resistant infections faster than we thought

One of the pillars of modern medicine is showing its cracks, according to a new report from the World Health Organization.

Antibiotics have turned once-deadly infections into minor inconveniences. They make lifesaving interventions, from surgery to chemotherapy, safer. But every time this powerful tool gets used, there's a risk — antibiotic resistance.

Out of the billions of bacteria causing an infection in an individual, some small fraction may be naturally resistant to a given drug. Taking an antibiotic can clear the field for those resistant bacteria to spread.

"Antimicrobial resistance is just basic evolution," says Kevin Ikuta , an infectious disease physician and researcher at UCLA. He says we need antibiotics, but "we are in this battle we're trying to lose as slowly as possibl