Good News and Bad News for Antibiotics

Every credible medical and health organization, including the American Medical Association, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the World Health Organization, has said if we don't significantly reduce antibiotic use in people and agriculture, we will soon live in a world where these drugs no longer work. This frightening prospect of unwinding nearly a century of progress against bacterial infections frames three recent announcements - one good, one mostly good and one bad. Quite simply, overuse of antibiotics is killing us. All organisms have the capacity to evolve in the face of biological threats, and germs are no exception. Faced with routine antibiotic treatments, bacteria can become resistant and these superbugs proliferate, eventually undermining the effectiveness of drugs developed to target them. According to the CDC, each year antibiotic resistant bacteria account for at least 2 million serious infections, 23,000 deaths, and $20-35 billion in healthcare costs in this country. We must cut back on these drugs, and we need to find new ones to combat resistant germs. On the plus side, Tyson Foods, the largest meat and poultry producer in the United States, announced that within two years it would drastically reduce the use of human antibiotics in its chicken production. It's a helpful step--but we need even more. Although Tyson has joined the likes of Perdue, McDonalds and Chick-fil-A in their commitment to reduce antibiotic use, the U.S. ani...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - Category: Science Source Type: news