Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Are A Genuine Threat We Must All Fight

Advances in medicine are in jeopardy. Doctors, governments, drug companies and patients all must change their behaviour

More people died of infections than cancer in 2010. This stark fact highlights the danger from rise in antibiotic resistance in bacteria, a danger the chief medical officer warned MPs about again this week.

For billions of years, certain bacteria have produced chemicals that protect them from attack by other microorganisms. Some of these chemicals make up the antibiotics used in medicine today. Unfortunately, bacteria are survival experts and have developed ways of resisting the toxic effect of these drugs. In fact, most of the resistance that is around today developed many years ago, either in the local environment, or in people and animals. Global travel is a major contributor to the increasing spread of such bacteria, exacerbating previously manageable problems of resistance...

There is no easy answer, but several steps can be taken. Governments, drug companies, doctors, patients and the walking well all have a role to play. Apart from two agents, no truly novel types of antibiotic have come onto the market for 40 years. It is difficult and expensive to develop such medicines and because they are taken for short courses, unlike cardiovascular or cancer drugs, they do not generally generate a high income for a pharmaceutical company...