"Antibiotic apocalypse" — of course — but who cares, when there's money to be made ignoring it?

© 2017 Peter Free

 

09 October 2017

 

 

Yet another in a now meaningless string of ignored warnings

 

From The Guardian:

 

 

Scientists attending a recent meeting of the American Society for Microbiology . . . . revealed that bacteria containing a gene known as mcr-1 – which confers resistance to the antibiotic colistin – had spread round the world at an alarming rate since its original discovery 18 months earlier. In one area of China, it was found that 25% of hospital patients now carried the gene.

 

Colistin is known as the “antibiotic of last resort”. In many parts of the world doctors have turned to its use because patients were no longer responding to any other antimicrobial agent. Now resistance to its use is spreading across the globe.

 

In the words of England’s chief medical officer, Sally Davies: “The world is facing an antibiotic apocalypse.”

 

© 2017 Robin McKie, ‘Antibiotic apocalypse’: doctors sound alarm over drug resistance, The Guardian (08 October 2017)

 

 

The culprits are the same that they have always been

 

From the same Guardian story:

 

 

“Superbugs are gaining strength because we continue to squander these precious medicines through overuse in human medicine and as cheap production tools in animal agriculture.”

 

© 2017 Robin McKie, ‘Antibiotic apocalypse’: doctors sound alarm over drug resistance, The Guardian (08 October 2017) (quoting antibiotic researcher Lance Price)

 

 

Nothing new here.

 

 

Antibiotic resistance has been building for decades, without any meaningful effort to stop it

 

Just the usual voluntary compliance cautions to physicians and farmers. Usually knowingly subverted by the very agencies providing the warnings.

 

 

The moral? — When accumulating money is prioritized over averting suffering and encouraging societal health, malignant capitalism is what we get

 

What a surprise.