BOULDER, Colo. – At least 2 million Americans will develop an antibiotic-resistant infection this year.
Drugs that used to work, such as penicillin or amoxicillin, often don't work anymore.
These resistant infections are on the rise and researchers say it's something that should concern all of us.
"The days when you can give a patient an antibiotic and you were pretty darn sure it was going to work are pretty much gone," said Corrie Detweiler, a microbiologist at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Bacterial infections that could once easily be cured now have potential to kill.
Each year, 23,000 Americans die from an antibiotic-resistant infection.
Detweiler's team wants to make antibiotics more effective. It searched through 14,000 compounds and found three that show promise.
"We've been able to find some chemicals, some compounds, that inhibit bacteria from pumping out antibiotics," Detweiler said.
Many bacteria have developed efflux pumps that pump out antibiotics meant to kill them. Detweiler's compounds block those pumps.
"If we can inhibit those efflux pumps, then we essentially resensitize that bacterium to a particular antibiotic," Detweiler said.
Pamela Harvey, a neuroscientist at CU Boulder said students research thousands of compounds looking for new antibiotics.
"In general, 1 in 10,000 compounds tested will become a drug in the pharmacy for you," Harvey said.
For Harvey, the research is important and personal.
"My dad got pneumonia over the summer. This is a guy who rides motorcycles and goes on trips with his friends. Two weeks later, he passed away from an antibiotic-resistant strain of pneumonia," Harvey said.
It's been a tough road for Harvey, but she remains focused on her work.
"The problem is not going away. It's getting worse," Harvey said,
Last year, one of Harvey's students had a hit on one of the thousands of compounds under review. It's now under study to test its efficacy on a resistant form of salmonella that causes typhoid fever.
Detweiler said there are simple steps people can take to reduce the risk of infection, which include treating even the smallest of cuts with Neosporin or alcohol.
And if you're given a course of antibiotics, it's important to take them exactly as prescribed.