The world should brace itself for millions of deaths in coming years. No, this is not one’s regular apocalyptic rhetoric, but a serious concern that has been highlighted in a UK government commissioned report.
The report warned that ’Superbugs’ or simply, antibiotic-resistant bacteria have been rising and if action is not taken, these superbugs could cause 10 million deaths a year by 2050 and $100 trillion a year in damages.
According to Al-Jazeera, The report titled ‘Tackling Drug-Resistant Infections Globally: Final Report And Recommendations’ by former Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill .The report says that superbugs are the biggest health threats being faced, and has called for dramatic changes in the way antibiotics are consumed both by humans and animals.
"We've all got to change how we are behaving, all 7 billion of us," O'Neill said . "Because of the connectivity of the world and how people travel and how animals travel, unless the whole world does something we won't solve it as a problem," he added.
As per News.Com.Au, at current there are 700,000 deaths every year.
The report fortunately gave suggestions on how to counter this threat, i.e. doctors should do tests to confirm whether antibiotics are required, before they are prescribed, developing and using more vaccines as alternative to antibiotics, and lastly reduce the use of antibiotics in animals.
“Improving hygiene and sanitation was essential in the 19th century to counter infectious diseases,” the report said.“Two centuries later, this is still true and is also crucial to reducing the rise in drug resistance — the less people get infected, the less they need to use medicines such as antibiotics,” it added.
Comments
Comments are closed.