Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumLancet - In Absence Of Radical Cutbacks In Antibiotic Use, Prepare For A Post-Antibiotic Era
Drug-resistant "superbugs" represent one of the gravest threats in the history of medicine, leading experts have warned. Routine operations could become deadly "in the very near future" as bacteria evolve to resist the drugs we use to combat them. This process could erase a century of medical advances, say government doctors in a special editorial in The Lancet health journal.
Although the looming threat of antibiotic, or anti-microbial, resistance has been known about for years, the new warning reflects growing concern that the NHS and other national health systems, already under pressure from ageing populations, will struggle to cope with the rising cost of caring for people in the "post-antibiotic era".
In a stark reflection of the seriousness of the threat, England's deputy chief medical officer, Professor John Watson, said: "I am concerned that in 20 years, if I go into hospital for a hip replacement, I could get an infection leading to major complications and possible death, simply because antibiotics no longer work as they do now."
About 35 million antibiotics are prescribed by GPs in England every year. The more the drugs circulate, the more bacteria are able to evolve to resist them. In the past, drug development kept pace with evolving microbes, with a constant production line of new classes of antibiotics. But the drugs have ceased to be profitable and a new class has not been created since 1987.
EDIT
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/superbugs-could-erase-a-century-of-medical-advances-experts-warn-8944617.html
Overseas
(12,121 posts)so pharmaceutical companies aren't working on them as much. Prefer working on drugs the patients have to take for their whole lives.
So it isn't just overuse, which I worried about when antibiotics were used for too many things, but privatization of medicine that hurts in this quest.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/hunting-the-nightmare-bacteria/
hatrack
(59,587 posts)Of course not.
What they want are drugs that let wealthy middle-aged and old people look young, grow hair and fuck.
Invisible handjob and all that . . . .
Overseas
(12,121 posts)colsohlibgal
(5,275 posts)I watched a show a week or two ago on PBS and - I at least considered living the rest of my life in a Hazmat suit. Freakily alarming, particularly if you have to go to a hospital.