4 ms·
>When they invented antibiotics, people began predicting "the end of disease." Fast forward a few decades and we have the rise of scary antibiotic-resistant inf
by LordDragonfang 5y ago
>When they invented antibiotics, people began predicting "the end of disease." Fast forward a few decades and we have the rise of scary antibiotic-resistant infections.
I think this is an extremely jaded take, resulting from growing up in a post-antibiotics society. The risk factor for those "scary antibiotic-resistant infections" is still an order of magnitude less than the class of diseases antibiotics almost totally eliminated. In the 30 years following penicillin's discovery, deaths from bacterial infection dropped from accounting for over 22% of all deaths to just 6% [1] (MRSA deaths, by comparison, currently represent less than half a percent). "End of disease" may be hyperbole, but between antibiotics and vaccines, infectious diseases were almost totally knocked off the leading causes of death.
The only reason why we even have antibiotic resistant bacteria is because they keep getting prescribed, because they're so damn useful. "Medical stuff" does, in fact, work like that, to some extent.
[1] https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/8889467/Gottfried05.pdf https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/8889467/Gottfrie...
- adrianN 5y agoThe major reason why we have antibiotic resistant bacteria is because we use literal tons of the stuff for meat production and too many countries have too lax controls for antibiotic use in humans, which means they are taken for things were they don't help, or are not necessary, and are taken in the wrong dosage and for the wrong duration.
- jacquesm 5y agoExactly, if we only used it when there was a chance of it being effective that would be that, but instead your average cow is a walking antibiotic laboratory.
- ncmncm 5y agoMalaria seems to develop resistance pretty fast. Are farm animals getting those treatments in their feed?
- adrianN 5y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antibiotic_use_in_livestock https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antibiotic_use_in_livestock
- ncmncm 5y agoYou will notice that the word "malaria" does not appear in the article cited. It is, thus, non-responsive, and no better than noise. Anti-malarial medications are not antibiotics. Malaria has never responded to any antibiotic, to my knowledge. Maybe you don't know what malaria is?
- adrianN 5y agoI simply misparsed "those treatments" in your comment, thinking that they referred to antibiotics, which this threat is about after all. I'm aware that Malaria is not a bacterial infection.
- pjc50 5y ago> infectious diseases were almost totally knocked off the leading causes of death. Well, until 2020. Then we had another infectious disease. Which is why we're having this conversation.