Britain s senior medical advisor is warning about the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, describing what she calls an "apocalyptic scenario" where, in 20 years time, people going to the hospital for a simple operation die of infections because we have run out of antibiotics.
"There are few public health issues of potentially greater importance for society than antibiotic resistance, Dame Sally Davies told the Guardian It means we are at increasing risk of developing infections that cannot be treated but resistance can be managed.
ACSH s Dr. Josh Bloom agrees, writing on Infectious Diseases and Vaccines that Drug companies can still discover new antibiotics but they ve mostly given up, partly because it is quite difficult to find novel antibiotics. And even if you find something it doesn t make economic sense to develop it mostly because of ridiculously prohibitive requirements from the Food and Drug Administration. And if the drug companies aren t involved, we re out of luck, because no one else has the capability to do this, he warns.