Antibiotic emergency ‘could claim 40 million lives in next 25 years’
Antibiotic emergency ‘could claim 40 million lives in next 25 years’
As superbugs spread across the globe, death rates from antimicrobial resistance are set to double, says England’s former chief medical officer
Summary
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) could claim 40 million lives by 2050, with death rates expected to double, warns Dame Sally Davies, former chief medical officer for England.
The overuse of antibiotics in livestock and misuse in healthcare are accelerating the evolution of superbugs, making routine medical procedures riskier.
Elderly populations are especially vulnerable, with AMR-related deaths among over-70s rising 80% since 1990.
Efforts to limit antibiotic use and develop new treatments are hampered by poor incentives for pharmaceutical companies.
"we'll cross that bridge while it's collapsing under us"
-entire medical industry
It's more the fault of the agricultural industry than the medical industry.
A solution to this was invented in the soviet union, phage therapy. The FDA doesn't like it because it doesn't fit their regulatory framework, and it's not profitable, so it's not used.
To be fair, with antibiotics that work there was no reason to even consider phages. Phages required ongoing work to get new phages targeting the new bacteria whereas early antibiotics were basically 1 step away from magic they worked so well.
Now, them not being used/researched more is fuckin' dumb though. We know that antibiotics aren't magic and are quickly becoming ineffective, but, [see your original comment]
wiki link for anyone curious https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phage_therapy
Neato
I not know, interesting. Thank you