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Multidrug-resistant bacterial infections cause more than 19,000 excess deaths a year in Thailand alone, according to a study published today in eLife Sciences Publications. In a first for Thailand, the study systematically examined microbiology laboratory and hospital databases from nine public hospitals in Northeast Thailand and compared them to Thailand’s national death registry to estimate that 19,122 deaths in Thailand in 2010 were excess deaths caused by multidrug-resistant bacterial infections.

Scientist measuring the size of a bacteria colony in a petri dish © MORU. Photographer: Direk Limmathurotsakul