One chart shows how serious the end of the 'golden epoch' of antibiotics will be
Antibiotic resistant "superbugs" have become one of the world's most pressing public health concerns. An estimated two million people become infected with drug-resistant bacteria in the US each year. Of those, at least 23,000 die.
In a recent TED Talk, journalist Maryn McKenna - an expert on public health - warns of the many things we will lose as we stand on the "threshold of the post-antibiotic era."
By 2050, the chart below shows, antibiotic-resistant bugs could kill an estimated 10 million people each year. Shockingly, this would surpass even cancer.
This chart puts the numbers of people predicted to die of antibiotic-resistant infections by 2050 into terrifying perspective.
In their understandable excitement, however, doctors began to over-prescribe and patients began to self-treat. In fact, it is estimated that more than half of patients who visit a clinic in the US are inappropriately prescribed antibiotics - often for symptoms caused by viruses that these "miracle drugs" are utterly powerless against.
When antibiotics are overused or used inappropriately - when a patient doesn't finish a full course of treatment, for example, or when low-dose antibiotics are used routinely in agriculture - it helps hasten the spread of resistant bacteria. After a course of antibiotics, some naturally resistant bacteria will be left behind, survival-of-the-fittest style; the more frequently antibiotics are used, the more prevalent these fiercer strains will become. Adjacent bacteria can also acquire resistance by mutating or exchanging genetic material with the resistant strains.
When those treatment-resistant bacteria grow and multiply, they can lead to new infections that then become difficult or even impossible to treat.
Such is the growing concern of public health officials and the impetus behind the launch of the Obama administration's five-year plan to combat antibiotic resistance. The realization that our longstanding approach is no longer working is also fueling the development of novel therapies that sidestep current treatment conventions.
The message is clear: We must act to stop antibiotic resistance, and we must act quickly. Millions of lives hang in the balance.