Opinion: My company is developing new antibiotics. My resistant infection showed me we need them now
I biked to work in a rainstorm one day in October 2019. As a longtime bike commuter, I was unfazed by the torrents of water as I skidded through puddles in a rush. After facing down the weather, I was surprised to find a far more violent storm brewing in my own body. Within 24 hours I felt feverish, it hurt to pee, and I experienced the characteristic cloudy urine that signals a urinary tract infection (UTI).
These infections are incredibly common: there are more than 150 million cases a year globally and most women will experience a UTI at least once in their lives. While antibiotics are routinely used to treat them, the existing ones are becoming less and less effective as the pathogens that cause UTIs — and every other bacterial infection — are becoming more and more resistant to them.
