A new study has revealed that cancer treatments and common surgical procedures will take more lives if bacteria continue to develop resistance to antibiotics that are widely used. According to the study, bacteria’s resistance to antibiotics could threaten people who had surgery and chemotherapy.

Ramanan Laxminarayan, director of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy and senior author of the study, said that people take antibiotics with a hope that they will protect them from dangerous infections after a surgery, chemotherapy or other medical procedures.

The study published by The Lancet on October 15 suggested that organisms resistant to standard antibiotics become the cause of infections in about 50% surgeries and over 25% chemotherapies.

According to researchers of the study, resistance to widely used antibiotics increase about 30% in the US, the dangerous bacteria could kill more than 6,000 patients a year in the country. If it really happens, more than 100,000 more infections will be reported in patients who undergo common surgical procedures, or chemotherapy, the researchers added.

Laxminarayan said, “Anytime you're going to need a surgery or a transplant, you're going to need effective antibiotics. It's something that affects all of us”.

Earlier actions of the US government have shown that it is serious about antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The government, earlier this year, released a plan to deal with antibiotic resistance.

As per the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 2 million people per year become infected by antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The agency also estimated that more than 20,000 die a year from these infections.