Antimicrobial Resistance

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) makes infections that used to be routine — UTIs among them — harder, slower, and more expensive to treat. Many of the first-line drugs that worked reliably even ten years ago now fail in a meaningful share of cases, particularly for patients with recurrent infections or recent antibiotic exposure.

This series covers the science and the systems. How resistance genes spread between organisms and across borders. Why the pandemic accelerated AMR after years of progress. How comprehensive resistance-marker testing — powered by next-generation sequencing and advanced bioinformatics — lets clinicians choose a working antibiotic the first time instead of cycling through empiric guesses.

Read it if you've been told a familiar antibiotic isn't working, if you're a clinician thinking about stewardship, or if you want to understand the broader pressures behind every UTI prescription.