Can minor multidrug-resistant bacterial infection become life-threatening?

Can multidrug-resistant bacterial strains become so widespread that even minor infections could develop into life-threatening conditions, as it used to be in the pre-antibiotic era?

Mark Loeb: Certainly. What happens with multidrug-resistant bacteria is they become very difficult to treat. We do not have effective antibiotics, so the infections that might be treated promptly, with a susceptible bacteria—that does not happen. People will get worse.

It is important to know that the strains themselves are not more virulent because they are resistant. It is just that treatment is more difficult, and people get worse if they are not effectively treated.