Vaccines are part of the solution to the emerging crisis of antibiotic resistance

Superhero. Superhighway. Superglue. Adding the prefix “super” highlights a thing’s unrivaled rank and elevates it above and beyond what is expected. But superbug has a different connotation. These microbes are increasingly resistant to currently available antibiotics, turning what should be easily treatable infections into deadly ones. Wiser use of antibiotics is one solution. Wider use of vaccines is another.

Each year, drug-resistant infections are responsible for 23,000 deaths in the United States. If current trends hold, projected that by 2050, 10 million people worldwide will die annually from untreatable infections. That’s almost as many lives as we will lose to all forms of cancer this year. The World Bank warns that the long-term economic damage from drug resistance than the 2008 financial crisis.