Post-Antibiotic Era: Stepping Into The Worst Medical Gloom Of Centuries

Amid a number of possibilities keeping medical experts on a lookout, is the one that claims the effective arrival of a ‘post antibiotic era’. We are officially living in Sir Alexander Fleming’s worst nightmare as fatal bacteria grow invulnerable against a number of antibiotics that humans once considered a medical revolution. A medical crisis like no other in centuries is now taking a toll on our major source of infection treatment antibiotics.

Darwin’s discovery of evolutionary tendencies has cost mankind very heavily this time. Or would it be quite unfair to hold the genius accountable for the crisis we face today? Exploitation of antibiotics by the pharmaceutical industry for decades on end led to bacteria cracking the code of these doses. We basically were so elated by the discovery of this quick treatment, that we did not refrain from using it right left and centre- even when it was clearly unnecessary. Harmful bacteria by likes of MRSA slowly began recognizing the drug pattern and evolved to develop an expected resistance to them. This gave rise to questions being raised in regard with a post antibiotic era by scientists world over. Gaping at the bizarre ancient infection treatments like Trepanation and elephant bile on our computer screens, we remain oblivious of the fact that those treatments might come into existence quite soon in the 21st century as well. A 2014 WHO report pulling together reliable factual data from 129 countries across Earth, stated that antimicrobial resistance has begun tightening its grip and is slowly leading us to a world of obsolete antibiotics. The issue got one-step ahead of our expectations when pathogenic bacteria begun showing invulnerability to carbapenems, famous by the self-explanatory name of ‘antibiotics of the last resort’.

These also happen to have ‘few if any replacements at all’ as the director of drug safety and innovation at the Pew Charitable Trust, Elizabeth Jungman explains. Medical professionals in a number of regions, including China, Denmark, Parts of England, India and the Northern United States now have no further class of antibiotics in reserve with the potential spread of the drug resistant mcr-1 gene. The matter of concern intensifies as some of the most commonly found diseases like Diarrhoea, Cancer, Cholera and Diabetes become causes of death solely because of multi-antimicrobial resistance. We will soon find ourselves failing to survive a normal infection that could be cured by one dose of an antibiotic just some years ago. The post antibiotic era is no longer a horrifying future anticipation, it is now. (Meta Description for better SEO results: Post Antibiotics Era is now a proved reality. A medical crisis like no other in centuries is now taking a toll on our major source of infection treatment…) Further topics to be covered in the article: The clear link between antimicrobial use in livestock and resistance in human beings Four decade statistics of new anti-biotics that have come in clinical usage. Scientific discoveries aiming to resolve the issue of drug resistance and their possible implementation.