The US has a new weapon in the fight against antibiotic resistance

The US government has upgraded its network of public health laboratories with new technology, allowing scientists to more quickly track down—and even predict—new sources of dangerous antibiotic resistant outbreaks in the food supply. The upgrade, outfitting the labs with technology needed to carry out whole genome sequencing, comes at a critical moment for the national health system. It is estimated that 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant infections occur each year in the US, which are linked to some 35,000 deaths.