The Guardian view on antibiotic resistance: walk softly, carry a big stick | Editorial

Preserving the drugs that have extended life expectancy by 20 years by only using them to save lives is a matter of urgency. The drug companies can’t do it. A prize just mightThe Longitude Prize is a very smart idea. The prize is a handsome £8m and it awaits the first individual or (more probably) team that develops a quick, cheap and reliable way of stopping overuse or misuse of antibiotics. The diagnostic – it might be a strip of sensitised paper or it might be a mobile phone app – must be capable of being used anywhere in the world. Next week another round of assessment of ideas begins from the 138 teams so far registered.A prize is smart economics to encourage smart science. It counters the lack of a strong market incentive to develop a diagnostic for which there is an overwhelming need – while reminding the rest of us to remember, next time we see the doctor, the urgency of the crisis. Antibiotics, it is reckoned, add 20 years to life expectancy; resistance is growing so fast that already 700,000 people die each year from untreatable infections. From the exotic, like typhoid, to the all too domestic Clostridium difficile, the pathogens that once succumbed swiftly to penicillin and other antibiotics now fight back. They are becoming killers again. Continue reading...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Antibiotics Society Biology Health Science Source Type: news