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In fact, that threat just hit incredibly close to home.

In mid-January, University of Georgia researchers studying local wastewater samples detected a gene that causes bacteria to become resistant to colistin, a "last resort" antibiotic used to treat infections in critically ill patients.

The discovery is just the latest evidence indicating how widespread antimicrobial resistance, or AMR, has become. AMR occurs when bacteria and fungi evolve to resist the medicines used to treat them. That should concern Georgians across the state -- and drive our lawmakers to take action to fight this crisis.

Drug-resistant superbugs render antibiotics and other antimicrobial medicines ineffective and can make previously treatable infections life-threatening. That's already happening here in Georgia. Cases of a drug-resistant bacterium known as MRSA increased by more than 15% between 2019 and 2020. And a drug-resistant fungus that's deadly in one-third of patients made headlines in 2019 after it appeared in the state.

The threat is only growing more deadly. New research in The Lancet revealed that superbugs played a role in nearly 5 million deaths across the globe in 2019 and killed more than 1.2 million people. That's nearly double previous estimates.

We need new and better antibiotics now to reverse the course of this crisis. Unfortunately, we aren't developing nearly enough. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved just one antibiotic with a novel target in the last 35 years.

That's mostly due to the complex, unique nature of antibiotics. These medications are essential for treating common ailments like urinary tract infections and preventing infections after routine surgeries. But because antimicrobial medicines could speed up the process of resistance each time they're used, they must be used sparingly and only when critically needed.

Although we desperately need new antimicrobials to treat serious infections with few treatment options, or none at all, it's important to hold these new drugs in reserve so they'll continue to work when needed.

These dynamics make funding antibiotic development particularly challenging since the drugs aren't sold in a high enough quantity to deliver a sufficient return on investment. So it's no surprise that large companies have exited the sector, or that the startups responsible for the lion's share of antibacterial research raised funding well below industry averages over the last decade.

We must work on solutions that change those market incentives. If there's anything we've learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, it's that it's possible to take an active and aggressive approach to address a serious infectious disease threat.

As a vaccine researcher, I am very familiar with the typical lengthy development process for a novel vaccine and the risk that developers may fail to secure enough investment funding to continue trials and bring a novel vaccine to market. But during the pandemic, public and private investors alike recognized the seriousness of the moment and poured in the necessary investments to eliminate that risk -- and facilitate record-breaking vaccine development.

Addressing the superbug crisis -- and developing new antimicrobial medicines to do so -- requires a similar level of support and investment.

Thankfully, members of Congress are working on providing it. Georgia's own Rep. Drew Ferguson (R-GA) is a lead sponsor of the bipartisan, bicameral PASTEUR Act, which would institute a subscription-style model for certain antimicrobials based on how valuable the medicine is to public health, rather than how much of the medicine is used. Just as Netflix subscribers pay a flat fee to stream as little or as much content as they want, under PASTEUR, the government would pay developers a set amount up front for access to novel antimicrobials. By providing a reasonable, guaranteed return on investment, it would enable antimicrobial makers to continue the development of new treatments.

Superbugs are already in Georgia hospitals and homes. Now is the time to recognize the seriousness of the threat they pose to our health -- and advance policy solutions to support antimicrobial development.