Antibiotics and Antibiotic Resistance

Antibiotics are one of the most important medical breakthroughs of the 20th century.1

They have revolutionized healthcare by making it possible to effectively treat bacterial infections. Before antibiotics, even minor infections could be life-threatening, and medical procedures and surgeries were much riskier due to the high chance of infection. As a consequence, antibiotics have saved countless lives.

But antibiotic resistance challenges their effectiveness. The overuse and misuse of antibiotics have hastened this growing global threat that makes it harder and more costly to treat infections.

The use of antibiotics isn't limited to human medicine: antibiotics are widely used in livestock farming, often as a cheap substitute for better hygiene standards.

The world can combat resistance by using antibiotics more carefully, developing new drugs, regulating antibiotic usage in livestock, and ensuring better access to diagnostics and treatments.

On this page, we explore the history, impact, and future of antibiotics, and present global data and research on antibiotics and antibiotic resistance.