Antibiotic synergy with enterococcal endocarditis experienced a high relapse rate when penicillin G alone was used for treatment and a demonstrably lower relapse rate when streptomycin was combined with penicillin G to combat the infection. Since that time the research community has conducted numerous studies regarding the effects and possibilities of antibiotic combinations. Today, combination therapy is recognized as providing a broad spectrum of antibiotic coverage, effectively fighting polymicrobial infections, minimizing selection for antibiotic resistant strains, lowering dose toxicity where applicable, and in some cases providing synergistic activity. Antibiotic synergy is desirable in a clinic sense for several reasons. At the patient
Antibiotic use in livestock cover all these areas and instead focuses on the use of antibiotics for growth promotion, which has been banned in Europe since 2006, and on legislation regarding antibiotic use in farm animals in the USA. In 2013, the CDC finalized and released a report detailing antibiotic resistance and classified the top 18 resistant bacterium as either being urgent, serious or concerning threats. Of those organisms, three ("C. diff", carbapanem-resistant enterobacteriaceae, and "Neisseria gonorrhoeae") have been classified as urgent threats and require more monitoring and prevention. In the US alone, more than 2 million people are diagnosed with antibiotic-resistant infections and