The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a report today confirming that the world is running out of antibiotics.
Viruses like gonorrhea,
tuberculosis, and even more common infections like pneumonia and
urinary tract infections, are becoming increasingly resistant to
existing antibiotics.
This happens with genetic changes in viruses,
misuse or mistreatment of antibiotics and antibiotics that kill viruses,
giving the super viruses more space to grow and spread.
Currently, many drugs have to be taken in tandem to be even a little
effective, and some still aren’t getting the job done. For example,
drug-resistant tuberculosis kills around 250,000 people each year.
Researchers are working on new antibiotics, but so far, few are good
enough to add to the existing antibiotic treatment stockpiles. The
report also says that few of these are oral antibiotics, which are
better for wider access outside of hospital settings.
In order to deal with the costs of developing such wonder drugs, WHO
and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative set up a Global
Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership where six countries,
including Germany, the UK and South Africa contributed over $67 million
for antibiotic expansion.
However, it is not on antibiotics alone — preventing the spread of
infection of these diseases is now emore important than ever.
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