3 ms·

Something that is not much talked about is the fact that many people apparently die from a sepsis (bacterial) that is caused by the primary infection. In Italy

Something that is not much talked about is the fact that many people apparently die from a sepsis (bacterial) that is caused by the primary infection. In Italy, it is almost customary to pop medication that contains antibiotics whenever you feel a bit under the weather. I lived in Italy, I experienced this first hand even from my more educated friends. Because of this Italians have an antibiotics resistance of 26.8% [1]. I do not have data for South Korea but in Germany, where I live, antibiotics are not available over the counter. You always need to see a professional and then they are much more expensive that e.g. in Italy. The resistance rate here in Germany is 0.4% [1]. That's 67 times (!) lower than in Italy. [1] https://atlas.ecdc.europa.eu/public/index.aspx?Dataset=27&HealthTopic=4 https://atlas.ecdc.europa.eu/public/index.aspx?Dataset=27&He...

J-dawg 7y ago
This is fascinating, I didn't know that data about antibiotic resistance was available like this, and definitely had no idea there was such huge variation between countries. Surely this should be considered a major public health emergency in itself? Are the countries with high percentages taking steps to limit antibiotic use? Coming from the UK the idea of letting people buy antibiotics as easily as painkillers seems crazy. And what the hell is going on in Greece!?
- tw202003131459 7y ago
  > Surely this should be considered a major public health emergency in itself? Indeed. There's an episode of Sam Harris's podcast with Matt MCarthy from last summer. The episode title is The Plague Years, and they go into quite a bit of detail on this sort of thing and ruminate about how low on the radar it is for most people (if it even registers at all), despite the seriousness of the situation.
mightypirate 7y ago
antibiotics are not available over the counter in Italy

J-dawg 7y ago

This is fascinating, I didn't know that data about antibiotic resistance was available like this, and definitely had no idea there was such huge variation between countries. Surely this should be considered a major public health emergency in itself? Are the countries with high percentages taking steps to limit antibiotic use? Coming from the UK the idea of letting people buy antibiotics as easily as painkillers seems crazy. And what the hell is going on in Greece!?

tw202003131459 7y ago
> Surely this should be considered a major public health emergency in itself? Indeed. There's an episode of Sam Harris's podcast with Matt MCarthy from last summer. The episode title is The Plague Years, and they go into quite a bit of detail on this sort of thing and ruminate about how low on the radar it is for most people (if it even registers at all), despite the seriousness of the situation.

mightypirate 7y ago

antibiotics are not available over the counter in Italy