Common diseases are becoming incurable, warns the United Nations in its latest report on progressive antibiotic resistance. If this trend continues, the diseases we can treat today will kill around 10 million. people each year. The vox.com portal writes about the document.
Drug resistance occurs when we overuse antibiotics to treat humans, animals, and plants. Initially, a newly administered antibiotic can give great results and even save the patient’s life. However, as it is used, its effectiveness decreases. This can lead to a very dangerous situation – the drug will not be able to overcome the disease, the treatment of which has not been a problem so far. Due to the risk of infection, it will also not be possible to safely perform surgery.
The vox.com portal reminds that each year, diseases that are not effective against antibiotics kill 700 people each year. people around the world, approx. 230 thousand. deaths are due to multi-drug resistant tuberculosis. Treatment of sexually transmitted diseases and urinary tract infections is also an issue.
Despite progressing antibiotic resistance, doctors still use antibiotics too often for treatment (and they are also too often used in agriculture), which only exacerbates the problem. As Amy Mathers, head of the University of Virginia’s Sink Lab, pointed out in an interview with vox.com, there has been a sharp increase in the number of patients infected with bacteria over the past decade in the US for whom there is no effective antibiotic. – I see it once a month. Ten years ago it was a rarity, she emphasizes.
In the report, the UN warns that the development of antibiotic resistance will negatively affect not only our health, but also the global economy. Moreover, according to the organization, a sharp increase in health care spending could cause economic damage comparable to the financial crisis of 2008-2009.
There is also good news. The problem of drug resistance can be solved. The bottom line is to stop treating antibiotics as if they were any freely available product. “We should think of antibiotics as public goods that are essential to the functioning of society – just like infrastructure and national security,” writes vox.com. Kevin Outterson, professor at the University of Boston, who specializes in antibiotic resistance, adds: “It’s a product we want to sell as little as possible.” The ideal would be an antibiotic that simply waits on the shelf for even several dozen years, until it is really needed. While this is an ideal public health situation, it is a real disaster for businesses.
The UN report calls on wealthy nations to support poorer nations in improving their health systems. It also recommends the creation of a large intergovernmental panel to address the issue of drug resistance.
Comp. on the basis of vox.com