Antibiotic resistance – the rise of deadly germs no longer stopped by the drugs that once controlled them – “threatens to take us back to the days when minor infections commonly killed,” according to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), which has made combating antibiotic resistance a top priority.

In response to a landmark report issued a year ago by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that sounded the alarm on drug-resistant threats to human health, President Barack Obama has issued an Executive Order and National Strategy to Combat Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria.

The excessive and incorrect use of antibiotics in this country is responsible for approximately 23,000 deaths as year – a figure the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is trying to reduce.

Drug-resistant germs called carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE, are on the rise and have become more resistant to last-resort antibiotics during the past decade, according to a new CDC Vital Signs report. These bacteria are causing more hospitalized patients to get infections that, in some cases, are impossible to treat.

To identify more hidden infections, provide prompt and appropriate care and treatment, and avoid tens of thousands of hepatitis C-related illnesses and deaths, CDC is recommending that all U.S. baby boomers get a one-time test for the hepatitis C virus.

The world needs new antibiotics to overcome the ever-increasing resistance of disease-causing bacteria – but it doesn’t need the side effect that comes with some of the most powerful ones now available: hearing loss.