The CDC report states: The United States has entered a post-antibiotic period

In the US alone, one person dies every 15 minutes from an antibiotic-resistant infection. That's 4 people every hour, nearly 100 people every day and 35,000 deaths every year.

The staggering figures were just outlined in a new report this week by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The topic of the report is "the urgent situation in our fight with antibiotic-resistant bacteria , " the report stated.

Although the CDC is only listing figures in the US, antibiotic resistance is definitely a global crisis. Each year, around 700,000 people worldwide die from drug-resistant infections.

And if we don't find a solution, the number is expected to rise to 10 million by the middle of the century. Meanwhile, easy-to-treat infections in the 20th century could come back to kill more of us than cancer.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are an inevitable consequence that happens when we overuse antibiotics in treating illnesses.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are an inevitable consequence that will occur when we abuse antibiotics in treating diseases for humans, animals and even plants. As soon as a new antibiotic is successfully formulated, it can yield great results.

Medicines will save many lives, but only for a period of time. Later, some bacteria began to adapt to the presence of these compounds. Gradually, these antibiotics became less effective, and we can no longer use them for treatment.

In fact, antibiotics are acting as a pillar of modern medicine. It not only helps us to fight dangerous infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, but also common and more common infections such as otitis, throat, bronchitis, skin, urinary tract infections .

For all of these diseases, bacteria are becoming increasingly resistant. Procedures such as cesarean section, surgery, and joint replacement are all becoming more dangerous because of the risk of drug-resistant infections.

Two of the most urgent threats currently come from C. difficile (an infection sometimes caused by antibiotic abuse) and drug-resistant N. gonorrhoeae (sometimes called gonorrhea virus) ).

Experts have issued their warning for years, that we are moving towards a period called post-antibiotic. As the name implies, post-antibiotic starts from the time when our antibiotics become useless, all bacteria can then turn into viruses and they will easily weaken. healthy.

Facing that abyss, people are still continuing to abuse antibiotics, continuing to push bacteria to evolve resistance to drugs. Doctors prescribe antibiotics for patients who have a viral illness such as a cold. Farmers mix antibiotics into animal feed, hoping to prevent disease and fatten cattle and poultry.

However, the new CDC report is not all bad news. In the hospital environment, we are practicing good antibiotic control and achieving encouraging results.

Taking the staph infection example, the report notes that the rate of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has decreased. Vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (VRSA) is no longer considered a threat. Overall, antibiotic resistance deaths have decreased by 18% compared to 2013.

But even though the number of deaths has decreased, antibiotic resistance is still considered an urgent problem.

The CDC report says. " Both you and I are living in an era where some miraculous drugs are no longer performing their miracles, and families are being separated by a tiny enemy."

Doctors like Amy Mathers, head of the Sink Lab Laboratory at the University of Virginia, have seen this with their own eyes. She shared that in the past decade, some patients in the United States have been infected with bacteria that have no treatment. " Ten years ago, it was very rare to have such a case, " she said.

" And now? I see that once a month ."

In response to the post-antibiotic era, here is what the CDC advises to do:

The new report highlights three main ways to deal with resistant viruses. Doctors, health professionals, health care providers, and ordinary people should equip themselves with this knowledge.

1. We should prevent infection before it happens

Prevention is better than cure - it is an advice that is repeated. Doctors should ask patients if they have been hospitalized or have traveled to another country before (because the virus can easily spread across borders). In addition, they must also ensure their patients have been fully vaccinated.

We ordinary people can prevent infection by washing their hands regularly, having safe sex, and if you're going to travel to a country, make sure you get the vaccine. as recommended by the doctor. Be wary of some unhygienic foods and drinks that can put you at risk of a gastrointestinal infection.

2. Administration of antibiotics to slow the development of drug-resistant viruses

CDC estimates that there are nearly 160 million prescriptions of antibiotics in the US every year, but 30% of them, about 47 million prescriptions are not really needed. If these prescription drugs are saved, the United States believes they can slow down the process of bacteria developing antibiotic resistance.

The same thing happens to you on an individual level. If you have a cold, flu, diarrhea, or other illness that can go away on its own after a few days, ask your doctor if your symptoms should take antibiotics, if you are okay if No need to take medicine?

3. Prevent the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria

Hospitals, clinics and health care services should update case reports early when someone has a problem with resistant bacteria. This will allow them time to take preventative measures to limit spread.

For example, earlier this year, a patient in Orange County, California, tested positive for C. auris, a multi-drug resistant fungus that could cause invasive infections and death. According to a CDC report, local health facilities promptly conducted screening for hundreds of other patients at risk.

When a new patient is identified with C. auris infection, they are immediately taken to a special isolation room. The rapid reaction has helped prevent antibiotic-resistant fungi from spreading to hundreds of vulnerable patients.

In the United States, there are about 47 million prescriptions of antibiotics every year, but it's not really necessary.

Pharmaceutical companies can research and develop new antibiotics, but why don't they do that?

The truth is that from 1962 to 2000, no new line of antibiotics was ever successfully developed, due in part to scientific obstacles. But the biggest obstacle is that antibiotic research is not profitable for pharmaceutical companies, so they have no incentive to do so.

Since 1990, 78% of major pharmaceutical companies have reduced or stopped all antibiotic research activities themselves. To understand why this is happening, we need to dig into the paradoxes of investing and making a profit.

According to a United Nations report last May, the problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria could be solved at a very cheap price. Accordingly, it is only necessary that each person in high-income and middle-income countries invest USD 2 a year for new drug research and effective measures to reduce the risk of drug resistance, including the world, including countries. The poor will also escape the crisis.

The total amount needed to beat the virus is about $ 1.5-2 billion per year, according to Kevin Outterson, a professor at Boston University who specializes in the study of antibiotic resistance. That's how much we spend on toilet paper for a few months.

Moreover, antibiotic resistance is a problem that is getting consensus both scientifically and politically. It is not like climate change, a problem that is facing a debate between the left and the right, to see if it is true or not.

This begs the question: If there is a cost-effective way to solve the problem, and it doesn't have any ideological controversy, why haven't we solved it?

The total amount needed to defeat the virus is approximately US $ 1.5-2 billion per year.That's how much we spend on toilet paper for a few months.

Unfortunately, the research and development of an antibiotic takes a lot of time. And most of the new compounds fail because bacteria will resist it.

Even when pharmaceutical companies succeed, the profits they make from selling antibiotics are small. This is because a new antibiotic - at least in theory, will only be used as a prophylactic drug for the last cases of resistance.

It means that it will not be able to be sold as an antibiotic or other daily medicine. Therefore, for pharmaceutical companies, the opposite of the amount of investment and the profits earned prevents them from continuing to study antibiotics.

While antibiotic resistance affects high-income and low-income countries equally, the paradox is that rich countries will be better equipped to cope with the crisis, and thus feel less urgent in problem solving proactively.

The United Nations report and a number of other experts suggest that to address the problem, we need to redesign the antibiotic treatment process. One of them is to take antibiotics out of the free market, the market still allows the price of drugs to be determined by the quantity sold so pushing antibiotic prices down very cheap, making them even more vulnerable to abuse. .

A better model at this point should probably consider antibiotics as a special commodity, affecting society equivalent to infrastructure or national security issues. Thereby, the health sector can tighten antibiotic management. At the same time, the government can also fund drug research and development.

" Antibiotics are a product we want to sell as little as possible, " explained Professor Outterson. " Ideally, each of us should have only one blister pack of antibiotics in our home medicine box, which can last for decades, and only be used when we need it . "

Although this prospect is a great thing for our health, Professor Outterson said that for pharmaceutical companies, it would be a disaster. They can spend billions of dollars to research and develop a new antibiotic, only to sell each person 1 blister for 10 years.

Pharmaceutical companies may have to spend billions of dollars to research a new antibiotic, only selling one blister for 10 years each.

This irrationality in the pharmaceutical industry is precisely why the government (and ideally the private sector and civil society) needs to step in to solve the problem, the United Nations report for know.

Governments should have incentives such as funding and tax credits to assist pharmaceutical companies in early stage antibiotic research. The report also calls on rich countries to help poor countries improve their health systems and recommend the establishment of a new intergovernmental council - like a climate change workshop, to address antibiotic resistance. .

However, in order for governments to agree and join hands to solve this problem, the public must first realize and consider it a top priority. But the reality is that not everyone today, even in a country like the United States, can see and act seriously before the situation of antibiotic resistance.

" I don't think politics or the American people themselves can now make antibiotic resistance a priority enough problem to address today, " Mathers said.

For his part, Outterson is afraid that in order to get the majority of people to pay attention and act on this urgent problem, the number of people dying of antibiotic-resistant bacteria will have to climb even higher.

When antibiotic resistance has not knocked on your door, we must ask the question: How many people need to die before you care about this issue, and promote their actions as well as society?

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