Bulbul Aktar, a shasthya kormi, or community health worker, with the malaria elimination program in Bangladesh, goes door to door to treat malaria patients. "This is my job, my duty," says Aktar. "Every single home, I have to know about them and visit them." Fatima Tuj Johora for NPR hide caption
Testing blood for malaria at a Doctors Without Borders clinic in Malawi. Ashley Cooper/Getty Images hide caption
In 2012, this mother carried her 5-year-old son to a malaria clinic in Thailand from Myanmar. Two new studies find that multidrug-resistant parasites are rendering front-line malaria drugs ineffective in Southeast Asia. Ben de la Cruz/NPR hide caption
A certified nursing assistant wipes Neva Shinkle's face with chlorhexidine, an antimicrobial wash. Shinkle is a patient at Coventry Court Health Center, a nursing home in Anaheim, Calif., that is part of a multicenter research project aimed at stopping the spread of MRSA and CRE — two types of bacteria resistant to most antibiotics. Heidi de Marco/KHN hide caption
Once scientists grew these Staphylococcus lugdunensis bacteria in a lab dish, they were able to isolate a compound that's lethal to another strain commonly found in the nose that can make us sick — Staphylococcus aureus. Mostly Harmless/Flickr hide caption
An overgrowth of Clostridium difficile bacteria can inflame the colon with a life-threatening infection. Dr. David Phillips/Getty Images/Visuals Unlimited hide caption
An X-ray of the chest of a man with tuberculosis. The areas infected with TB bacteria are colored red. Science Photo Library/Corbis hide caption
David Livermore, the director of the Antibiotic Resistance Monitoring and Reference Laboratory in London, studies a new class of superbugs, called carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE. Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters /Landov hide caption
A Cambodian boy gets tested for malaria at a clinic along the Thai-Cambodian border in 2010. Three strains of drug-resistant malaria have emerged from this region over the past 50 years. Paula Bronstein/Getty Images hide caption
A public health poster from 1952 encourages Americans to get checked for sexually transmitted diseases. Gonorrhea is the second-most-common sexually transmitted disease in the U.S., with more than 300,000 cases reported in 2011. Images from the History of Medicine hide caption
Oxana and Pavel Rucsineanu walk to the tuberculosis hospital in Balti, Moldova. Oxana and their new baby live in an apartment, but Pavel still has to stay at the TB ward, fighting for his life. Jason Beaubien/NPR hide caption
Dr. Aun Pyae Phyo examines a baby at the Whampa malaria clinic on the Thailand-Myanmar border. Ben de la Cruz/NPR hide caption
Health workers take a blood sample from an infant to test for the malaria at a clinic along the border between Thailand and Myanmar. Ben de la Cruz/NPR hide caption
This 5-year-old boy was carried to a Thai malaria clinic by his mother from deep inside Myanmar. If the mother had waited even a day longer, doctors say, the child probably would have died. Ben de la Cruz/NPR hide caption
Daw Khin Twon, an undocumented immigrant from Burma, rests at home after receiving malaria treatment at the Mae Tao Clinic in Mae Sot, Thailand. Ben de la Cruz/NPR hide caption
A doctor examines chest X-rays at a tuberculosis clinic in Gugulethu, Cape Town, South Africa in late 2007. The number of TB cases that don't respond to both first- and second-line medications is rising worldwide. Karin Schermbrucker/AP hide caption
A micrograph shows red blood cells infected by the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. John C. Tan/AP hide caption