As Antibiotic Resistance Spreads, WHO Plans Strategy To Fight It
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
The world is losing some of the most powerful tools in modern medicine. Antibiotics are becoming less and less effective at fighting infections. The problem has gotten so bad that some doctors are starting to ponder a “post-antibiotic world.”
Common infections that have been easily treatable for decades could become deadly if the current growth of antimicrobial resistance continues.
“Globally this is a really big issue,” says Keiji Fukuda, assistant director-general for health security at the World Health Organization. “We are seeing the same patterns of resistance basically occur everywhere.”
In Europe alone, 25,000 people now die each year from infections that used to be treatable with antibiotics, Fukuda says. Some Staphylococcus infections acquired in hospitals have become almost impossible to cure. The pathogens behind malaria and tuberculosis are evolving to elude even the best treatments.
Source: NPR (link opens in a new window)
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