A new U.S.government report says more than two million Americans fall ill each year with drug--resistant bacterial infections ,and 23,000 of them are dying as a result.The head of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention[CDC]said that the number probably will grow.Officials warn that steps must be taken now to preserve the effectiveness of antibiotic drugs. Without urgent action to stop that trend,warned Tom Frieden whose agency wrote the report,the miracle drugs to fight them won't be available in the future. "If we are not careful,the medicine chest will be empty when we go there to look for a lifesaving antibiotic for someone with a deadly infection.But if we act now,we can preserve these medications while we continue to work on development of new medicines."The report names a drug--resistant abuse of gonorrhea ,which causes about one quarter of a million hospitalizations in the United States annually.Of the number at least 1 4,000 result in death. Drug resistance develops through the overuse and inappropriate use of anti--bacterial agents.These can be:doctors prescribing  them to patients who have viral infections that are not affected by medicine meant to fight bacteria;patients not taking all of their medicine as prescribed,so the bacteria making them sick are only weakened,not killed;antibiotic use in healthy farm animals to prevent illness and promote growth.Antibiotic remainders left in meat and animal products can then lead to drug resistance in humans. To limit the spread of resistant infections,experts recommend wider use of routine immunizations ,as well as hand--washing in hospitals and other health care facilities.Also,the report urges hand--washing by food handlers. Michael Bell,deputy director of the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion at CDC,said Patients also can play a role in preserving the effectiveness of antibiotics by asking health care providers a few simple questions. One of the approaches through which drug resistance develops is that  _  .
people eat the meat with Antibiotic remainder in animals doctors prescribe less antibiotics than needed for patients doctors prescribe much more antibiotic than needed for patients patients don't take their ant-bacterial agents that doctors prescribe