Science
According to the head of the World Health Organization, the world is entering an antibiotic crisis, which makes it impossible to perform routine operations. Margaret Chan, head of WHO, says that bacteria are becoming so resistant to modern antibiotics that it could lead to the end of modern medicine in this form, where we know it.
As a result, every antibiotic is in the near future at risk of becoming useless, making one of the most routine medical surgeries impossible. We are talking about the potential uselessness of new drugs designed to treat tuberculosis, malaria, bacterial infections, HIV/AIDS, as well as simple treatments for common cuts.
Speaking at a conference on infectious diseases in Copenhagen, Dr. Chan emphasized that we are likely to enter a “post-antibiotic era.” Drug replacement can be very expensive, and the treatment periods required to achieve the same effect may be prolonged.
“Moreover, common things like pharyngitis or a scratched knee can kill again,” she added. “Antimicrobial resistance is increasing in Europe and around the world, and we are losing essential drugs. Replacing the procedure is more expensive, more toxic, requires longer treatment, and some patients are likely to need intensive care.”
Among people infected with some drug-resistant viruses, mortality will increase by 50 per cent. After the antibiotic era, medicine as we know it today will come to an end.
This warning came after the World Health Organization published a new book on the “global crisis”, most of which included information about the evolving threat antimicrobial resistance. “The bacteria that cause the development of diseases will sooner or later become resistant to the antibiotics with which they react,” the book writes.
This crisis has been brewing for decades, so today many life-threatening infections are becoming untreatable, and sometimes common infections develop into dangerous ones lives. The article also says that this is due to the excessive abuse of antibiotics, which have been used too often and for too long.
“The relentless increase in antimicrobial resistant infections, the shortage of new antibiotics, and few incentives for the industry to invest in research and development have led to the need for innovation,” the authors say. WHO is now reaching out to governments around the world to support research on antimicrobial resistance.
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