( CNN ) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a new drug to treat bacterial skin infections like Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus , also known as MRSA . MRSA is caused by a strain of staph bacteria that 's become resistant to most antibiotics . It 's life-threatening and is often found in hospitals and other health care settings . The new drug , called Dalvance , is taken intravenously . The drug is only approved for use in adults , according to the Chicago-based company that markets the drug , Durata Therapeutics . What makes it different from other MRSA antibiotics is the way it was approved . MRSA can survive for days on planes . This is the first drug labeled by the FDA as a Qualified Infectious Disease Product . QIDP is part of a program that the administration hopes will encourage drug companies to develop new drugs like Dalvance that will fight the epidemic of antibiotic-resistant infections . Any drug designated QIDP by the FDA gets a priority review and expedited review process . If approved the drug also then qualifies for an additional five years of marketing exclusivity . Antibiotic-resistant infections are considered such a threat , in a report released earlier this year the World Health Organization said that these infections could derail the `` very achievements of modern medicine . '' The report characterizes the problem as so bad that a `` post-antibiotic era '' is `` far from being an apocalyptic fantasy . '' The WHO report says if health trends continue , a time when typical antibiotics do n't work on run of the mill kinds of infections is `` a very real possibility for the 21st Century . '' Hospitals getting better about MRSA . Antibiotic-resistant bacteria infect at least 2 million people each year , according to the CDC . Of those , at least 23,000 die as a direct result of the infection and many more die as a result of conditions complicated by that infection , mostly in hospital and health care settings . The number of health care spread MRSA cases is declining , according to the Centers for Disease Control . But on any given day 1 in 25 hospital patients has at least one health care associated infection . Most happen to patients who are not in intensive care units . That means you could go into the hospital for a knee surgery and end up leaving with a serious infection that normal antibiotics do n't treat . Experts say MRSA became a real problem for the health care system as doctors spent decades over-prescribing antibiotics . Patients who came in for treatments for colds and flus were given antibiotics even though such infections do n't typically respond to medication . When you need antibiotics -- and when you do n't . Over time , the bacteria that did survive these treatments reproduced and infections that were resistant to antibiotics became wider spread . Outbreaks of MRSA called community-associated MRSA have happened at schools , day care centers , and in gyms , and are typically spread by skin-to-skin contact . Protecting student athletes from MRSA . Staph infections typically start with small red bumps which can turn into painful abscesses that often require surgical draining . The latest tool to fight MRSA , Dalvance , was approved after two clinical trials that included 1,289 adults with this kind of infection . The adults were given Dalvance or another antibacterial drug . Dalvance was as effective as that drug for the treatment of this infection . The most common side effects for people on the drug during the trail were nausea ( 5.5 % ) , headache ( 4.7 % ) , and diarrhea ( 4.4 % ) . MRSA : Protect your kid from a superbug .
FDA approves new drugs to treat skin infections , including MRSA . CDC : Skin infections have gone down in the U.S. Antibiotic - resistant infections are a big problem , WHO says .