Studeo
9th April 2011, 08:34
In the war between bugs and drugs, bacteria are on the cusp of a crushing victory.
Barely 70 years after antibiotics were introduced, the World Health Organisation has warned that the world could soon face a future without them ? and New Zealand experts back the dire prediction.
In a World Health Day address, WHO director-general Margaret Chan said indiscriminate use of antibiotics has made bacterial infections increasingly resistant, with fewer and fewer antibiotics available to treat them.
"The world is heading towards a post-antibiotic era, in which many common infections will no longer have a cure and, once again, kill unabated."
Drug resistance was a natural process, but had been vastly accelerated by misuse, she said.
That included overuse, "sometimes to be on the safe side, sometimes in response to patient demand, but often for doctors and pharmacists to make more money"; underuse, when people did not complete a full course of antibiotics; and using the wrong type of antibiotic....
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/4867368/Bacteria-on-brink-of-victory
Barely 70 years after antibiotics were introduced, the World Health Organisation has warned that the world could soon face a future without them ? and New Zealand experts back the dire prediction.
In a World Health Day address, WHO director-general Margaret Chan said indiscriminate use of antibiotics has made bacterial infections increasingly resistant, with fewer and fewer antibiotics available to treat them.
"The world is heading towards a post-antibiotic era, in which many common infections will no longer have a cure and, once again, kill unabated."
Drug resistance was a natural process, but had been vastly accelerated by misuse, she said.
That included overuse, "sometimes to be on the safe side, sometimes in response to patient demand, but often for doctors and pharmacists to make more money"; underuse, when people did not complete a full course of antibiotics; and using the wrong type of antibiotic....
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/4867368/Bacteria-on-brink-of-victory