Is Human Resistance Futile? Maps Show March Of Drug-Resistant Germs

I don't want to freak you out. OK, maybe a tiny bit. Being a little scared might get you to wash your hands more often. And that would be a good thing for everyone.

So just tool around this collection of interactive maps showing the march of drug-resistant germs across North America and Europe. The global health nonprofit Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy came up with the ResistanceMap. The project is called Extending the Cure.

Here in the U.S., we're doing better than average when it comes to antibiotic-resistant pneumonia with a resistance score of 19, compared with, say, Greece, which gets a 90 on a scale of 100, which would be the worst.

But we've got nothing to brag about when it comes to drug-resistant staph, or MRSA. The group's analysis shows, for example, that the U.S. has one of the highest rates of drug-resistant staph strains, despite some improvement. And within the U.S. the problem is most acute in the South, as the screengrab above shows.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a funder of NPR, helped with financial support of the project through its Pioneer Portfolio. The maps update previous work by Extending the Cure.

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