https://archive.ph/QABYy
"Even before the COVID pandemic, antimicrobial resistance, in which microbes no
longer respond to common medications like antibiotics, was a big concern for
public health organizations and health care specialists. In 2019, the latest
year for which data are available, antimicrobial resistance led to 4.95 million
deaths globally, making it the third leading cause of death after
cardiovascular diseases and cancer.
After more than two years of COVID, with rampant and inappropriate antibiotic
use arising from treatment protocols, public health and health care specialists
say antimicrobial resistance is getting substantially worse in many countries,.
This is concerning because bacteria that cause routine infections in the blood,
lungs and uninary tract, not to mention well-known illnesses that still exist
in lower-income nations, such as typhoid and tuberculosis, are becoming
increasingly resistant to existing drugs. At the same time, the pharmaceutical
industry lacks sufficient interest in developing antibiotics, as the market for
them is not lucrative. We stand to lose 10 million people each year worldwide
by 2050 from diseases that we could once treat. Unfortunately, 90 percent of
these deaths will happen in low- and middle-income countries.
Antimicrobial resistance has been a long-standing pandemic of its own that has
been overlooked. COVID has reinforced the urgency of breaking the culture of
liberal antibiotic use. We must strengthen regulations around prescribing these
drugs and retrain health care providers all over the world to be more stringent
in their use of anitbiotics. We must improve sanitation and hygiene to prevent
the spread of disease-causing bacteria. We need better diagnostics and more
robust vaccine programs. We are running out of options, and the infectious
bacteria that plague so many people in non-Western nations are poised to win a
battle we once had in hand."
Via Violet Blue’s
Pandemic Roundup: November 24, 2022
https://www.patreon.com/posts/pandemic-roundup-75054064
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
