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 possi